James Blake took home this year's Barclaycard Mercury Prize Wednesday night for his second album "Overgrown."
The Mercury Prize, for the best British or Irish album of the year, was handed out at the Roundhouse in north London. Electronic artist James Blake, the recipient of the prize said the win was both "exciting" and "confusing."
"This is the first award I've ever won apart from a tennis trophy I won when I was 12," he said.
The artist beat the likes of David Bowie and Arctic Monkeys to win the prize. When asked how he felt on beating the legendary Bowie, Blake said it didn't feel like he beat him.
"A lot of people do their best work when they're young - and it's always disappointing when they don't keep going and don't keep innovating. So David Bowie's an inspiration to people like me," he said in a BBC News report.
The singer was nominated for the award back in 2011 for his debut album "James Blake" but lost out to PJ Harvey for his album "Let England Shake."
The Mercury Prize, formerly known as the Mercury Music Prize and now the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, was first established in 1992. It was originally sponsored by Mercury Communications, hence the name. Nominations are chosen by a panel of musicians, music executives, journalists and other figures in the music industry in the UK and Ireland. The Mercury Prize has come to be known for its unpredictable results, always awarding the prize to an outsider rather than a favorite.
Primal Scream became the first band to win the prize in 1992 for its album "Screamadelica." Other winners include Dizzee Rascal, Franz Ferdinand, Antony and the Johnsons, Antony and the Johnsons and Arctic Monkeys.
