Following in the footsteps of Celeste, Sam Smith and Adele, Griff has been named the Brit awards Rising Star for 2021.
“In my head I’m still screaming from the phone call when I found out,” said the 20-year-old pop songwriter from Hertfordshire. “It’s honestly such a miracle: how on earth did we manage to win a Brit and break through during a pandemic?”
Signed to Warner Records in 2019, Griff (real name Sarah Griffiths) has written songs about devastating heartbreak set to synth-pop that evokes the era of Janet Jackson and Peter Gabriel. In 2020, she was nominated for Rising Star at the Ivor Novello songwriting awards. This year, she placed fifth in the BBC’s Sound of 2020 poll. Taylor Swift – a formative influence on the young musician – has declared herself a fan.
Griff beat Coventry rapper Pa Salieu and British Japanese pop star Rina Sawayama to the prize. The latter, however, left a permanent mark on the Brits: last year, Sawayama expressed her frustration that she was ineligible for the Mercury prize and the Brits – both run by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) – because she didn’t hold a UK passport, yet had lived in the country for 25 years and held indefinite leave to remain.
Last month, the BPI announced a change to its rules, wherein any artist who was born in the UK, held a British passport, or had been a permanent resident in the UK for more than five years would become eligible for nomination.
As the changes were announced, Sawayama said she was “over the moon … I’m so proud I can help make this systemic change for future generations, so that in years to come we can see a more diverse definition of British musical excellence.”
The Rising Star award was open to British artists who, as of 28 February 2021, have not yet had a Top 20 album or more than one Top 20 single. The Brit awards ceremony takes place on 11 May – delayed from its usual February date by the coronavirus pandemic.
