Griff has been crowned The Brit Awards Rising Star for 2021.
The prestigious award has previously been won by the likes of Adele, Sam Smith, Florence and the Machine and most recently, Celeste.
Of the win, Griff said: “In my head I’m still screaming from the phone call when I found out. It’s honestly such a miracle: how on earth did we manage to win a BRIT and break through during a pandemic?”
Griff was one of three nominees up for this year’s award alongside Rina Sawayama and Pa Salieu.
The 20-year-old has been hotly tipped for some time, receiving her first Radio 1 play from Annie Mac in 2019 (while still studying for her A Levels). Last summer she was nominated for the first ever Rising Star Ivor Novello Awards and she was one of the top five in the BBC’S Sound Of poll for 2021.
Griff also featured on The Forty-Five’s cover back in February. In our exclusive interview, she told us she’s here to do things a little differently. “If you go on New Music Friday every week, everything’s good but it’s the same,” she said, of Spotify’s much-coveted weekly playlist of new releases. “It’s another girl writing about heartbreak but looking the same.”
Griff will release her first mixtape – ‘One Foot In Front Of The Other’ – on Warner Music this summer.
Past BRITs Critics’ Choice / Rising Star winners:
2008 Adele
2009 Florence + The Machine
2010 Ellie Goulding
2011 Jessie J
2012 Emeli Sandé
2013 Tom Odell
2014 Sam Smith
2015 James Bay
2016 Jack Garratt
2017 Rag ’n’ Bone Man
2017 Jorja Smith
2017 Sam Fender
2017 Celeste
