British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks won big at this year’s AIM Independent Music Award ceremony; the singer walked away with two awards.
The 21-year-old singer won double accolades including the UK Independent Breakthrough award in association with YouTube and Best Independent Album in association with Spotify for Collapsed in Sunbeams, her debut release. The “Black Dog” singer also won at last year’s ceremony; Parks took away the One to Watch award during the 2020 event. The artist is no stranger to accolades and acclaim, during this year’s Brit Awards Park won the Best New Artist award. in 2020 she also won the BBC Introducing Artist of the Year and was shortlisted for the Hottest Record of the Year for “Black Dog”.
Parks had this to say concerning her multiple wins at the 2021 AIM Independent Music Award event. The singer describes her gratitude to her fans and expresses joy for her music’s importance during these recent uncertain times. “I want to say a big big thank you to my fans, to my team, I’m grateful to be growing every day as an independent artist and this period has been so difficult, so chaotic and so confusing, so to be able to bring people light in this time of need has been really special.”
Parks was not the only artist to win two awards at this year’s ceremony, ENNY also won more than one award. The multitalented English artist took home the Best Independent Track award in association with Facebook for her 2020 single “Peng Black Girls” and the One to Watch prize in association with BBC Music Introducing. The 26-year-old singer has also spoken about her double win. “Very very very unexpected, especially how early on everything has started happening, so I’m just really filled with a lot of gratitude. Wanna big up my team and everyone that’s been a part of this journey so far. Thank you!”
Other winners from this year’s event include Jayda G who won International Breakthrough in association with Deezer, Fontaines D.C. who won Best (Difficult) Second Album in association with BBC Radio 6 music for their album A Hero’s Death. The Best Independent Remix in association with Soundcloud was awarded to the Eikka Remix of the Ela Minus track “megapunk“, the Best Independent Video in association with Vevo was prized to Wesley Joseph for 2021 track “Thrilla”, the UK indie label Forever Living Originals won the Best Independent Label award in association with Integral, another UK label Strut Records also won at this year’s event, they won the Best Small Label award in association with Believe. The quintet Working Men’s Club won the Best Creative Packaging award for their release Working Men’s Club, the PPL Award for most played new independent artist was bestowed to singer and producer Lauv, multi-talented artist Ben Böhmer took home the Best Live (Streamed) Act in association with On Air.
The award ceremonies do not just celebrate new talent but also honour influential artists, British producer and rapper Tricky scored the prestigious Pioneer Award in association with Fuga, legendary dub producer Adrian Sherwood was awarded the Innovator Award in association with Amazon Music and the Outstanding Contribution to Music in association with Merlin was taken home by Joan Armatrading CBE, Armatrading is a triple Grammy award nominee and highly acclaimed artist with a career spanning over 50 years. The Indie Champion award in association with MCPS was given to industry favourites Love Record Stores and Bandcamp and lastly, the Diversity Champion prize was given to Paulette Long OBE, an iconic figure within the music industry known for her work within musical education.
Arlo Parks will be returning to an awards stage next month for the Mercury Prize ceremony, Parks is nominated for her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. The singer will be performing at this year’s event alongside the ceremony’s other nominees, Parks will perform one of the shortlisted album’s tracks within the ceremony which will be broadcasted on various BBC channels.
