Sam Fender has donated the entirety of his £25,000 Mercury Prize prize money to the trust for venues, which works to save the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.
Fender was presented with the prize on 16 October as his third album the album was chosen as the outstanding release of the past year.
He has decided to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function small stages had in his beginning days.
"As an artist couldn't be pursuing what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the performances I played around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," stated Fender. "These spaces are legendary, but they are facing challenges."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these spaces have ceased operations – approximately one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, well-known musicians like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to help venues survive, by including a small levy to their ticket prices, which goes to help independent venues.
Sam Fender also took part, generating more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help numerous grassroots venues across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds assisted locations that were dealing with imminent closure due to challenges stemming from flooding, fire incidents and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.
Additional spaces received financial assistance in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that positively impacted musicians and audiences.
"The concept that money from concerts in large arenas backs the local stages, where it kicks off for artists like me, is just sensible," Fender has commented.
The musician is far from the only musician to contribute his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.
When Pulp received the prize in the mid-90s for their record Different Class, frontman Cocker announced that the band would contribute their winnings to the organization War Child.
In 2002, rapper and singer she divided her award among a few organizations, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I contributed a £1,000 to the center, to their classes, because I practiced gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked new equipment," she shared with a publication.
Two years ago, they donated their prize money to the community center that nurtured their group, in addition to other independent music bodies.
Also winners that year the group donated their winnings to a MS organization after a acquaintance was identified with the illness.
"Receiving the award was sufficient," stated singer the singer. "The prize was the cherry on top but we didn't need the extra, because we had the main prize. So our victory touched another person's life."
Recently, the Music Venues Trust announced it had protected a couple of grassroots venues in south-east England, by transferring them to local control.
The first in that area and the other in that location were purchased under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is supported by a national body and supporters who acquire "stakes" in the buildings.
