Speech Debelle wins Mercury Prize

The London rapper Speech Debelle, who draws her lyrics from the four years she spent in London hostels for the homeless after being asked to leave the family home at 19, has won the 2009 Mercury Prize. With only 3,000 copies of her album Speech Therapy sold since its release in June, she was the lowest-selling artist ever to win the award.

All that will change now, with mega-sales virtually guaranteed. Which has pleased music critics who say she is exactly the sort of person who should get the £20,000 prize. "For once, an award that frequently has its purpose called into question looks like it has a point," writes the Guardian's pop critic Alex Petridis.

Debelle shook off some serious competition to take the Mercury, including Kasabian, Bats For Lashes, Glasvegas, The Horrors and Florence + the Machine.

At the awards ceremony on Tuesday at London's Grosvenor House, Debelle ­ whose real name is Corynne Eliot ­ said she had been inspired by watching Ms Dynamite win the 2002 Mercury winner. That was the last time a black, female solo artiste won the prize.

Debelle's tough upbringing didn't just give her the material for her rapping - it seems to have left her self-confidence in good shape too. "There's a lot of music that sounds the same, all day on the radio," she said, after Jools Holland had announced her as the winner, "and my album doesn't sound like their album and it's still won the Mercury Prize.

"Hopefully this will throw a wrench in the system and people will hear this album and realise they don't have to make music that sounds the same ­ they can make music that sounds good."

WHAT THE CRITCS ARE SAYING:
Pete Paphides, the Times: "In any year - let alone one in which a black or female artist hadn't won for five years - Speech Debelle's album would have made a convincing case for itself. [Producer Wayne] Lotek's inspired arrangements - woodwind, violins, acoustic guitars tending towards melancholy jazz phrases - realised Debelle's intention to deliver an album that sounded like 'a hip-hop Tracy Chapman'."

Alex Petridis, the Guardian: "It's the kind of album you suspect a lot of people would like, were it given the right exposure. As a result of the Mercury win, it will now get that, which means that for once, an award that frequently has its purpose called into question looks like it has a point."

Leonie Cooper, NME: "Better Days [is] a slow-burning, Micachu-featuring slice of portentous pop that's both unsettlingly gloomy and joyously uplifting. As impressive as her gossamer-light voice layered over the strings and breakbeats on Bad Boy is, Speech can do upbeat as well as down; try the animated Spinnin’, The Key’s jazzy old-school and Live & Learn's folk flavoured acousti-funk." ·