Sam Fender hopes to win all three of his BRIT Award nominations tonight and has special plans for the trophies.
The rocker, 27, won the prestigious Critics Choice Award at the 2019 BRITs ceremony but donated his prize to The Low Lights Tavern, the boozer that kickstarted his career.
Sam was first discovered in the pub by his now manager when he was just 18 while working behind the bar pulling pints for thirsty locals after failing his A-Levels.
His then boss encouraged him to get out from behind the bar and strike up a tune on his guitar after noticing that his future manager who had signed Ben Howard was in the room.
(Image: WireImage)
Paying homage to the pub that launched his career, he explained that “there are another four pumps that we could use,” as he joked about how the awards would be stored.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star ahead of tonight’s event, where he is nominated for Mastercard Album of The Year, Artist of the Year and Best Rock/Alternative Act the Seventeen Going Under star reflected on his nominations: “It’s insane, I’ve been saying that every single step of the way is an overwhelming moment, so to get to this stage where I’ve put so much into this record and for it to be received the way it has been.
“Then to get three nominations is great and it would be great if we could take one.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Despite going up against the likes of Adele, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran, Fender isn’t too anxious about this.
He said: “It’s out of my hands, it’s not like we’re going to get on stage and have a battle of the bands or something.
“So it’s in the hands of whoever’s voted so I’ll just see what happens, I’m not too nervous about it.
“I’m more nervous about actually performing at the BRITs than actually the bit where you wait for the award.”
Sam joked: “If you don’t win, you have a party anyway and then if you do win, you have an even bigger party.”
(Image: Getty Images)
While he may have won the prestigious Critics Choice, he doesn’t feel too much pressure to follow on his success, despite having one of the biggest songs of 2021.
“We’ve kind of achieved what we really wanted to with the music and the album’s been received really well, we’re playing the biggest gigs we’ve ever played,” he exclaimed.
The songwriter continued: “In that respect, I’m very happy with the way things are going, obviously it would be lovely to take a BRIT home, it would be the icing on the cake of the most received campaign of an album I could have ever had.”
(Image: PA)
Sam’s success has seen him become a headline act at London’s Finsbury Park, playing to an estimated 40,000 fans, something he’s still struggling to recognise.
“It hasn’t quite sold out yet but it’s three-quarters of the way there already which is insane, that’s like 40,000 people so to even think that that’s even happening is completely ludicrous,” he joked.
Meanwhile, research by Mastercard shows that winners of Song of the Year have launched their careers on social media, shortened the length of their songs and mainly feature topics such as heartbreak.
The BRIT Awards air exclusively on ITV and the ITV Hub at 8pm.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
