Young Fathers make history by winning their third SAY Award

27 October, 2023

Graham "G" Hastings, Alloysious Massaquoi and Kayus Bankole of Young Fathers perform at Eventim Apollo on October 21, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Burak Cingi/Redferns)

Young Fathers have made history by winning their third Scottish Album of the Year award with the LP ‘Heavy, Heavy‘.

While accepting the prize, frontman Alloysious Massaquoi said: “Thank you to the judges, and all the nominees and everybody that’s turned up tonight – it’s a bit radge!”

He continued: “The album is called ‘Heavy Heavy’ for a reason, it’s the trials and tribulations of everybody. It’s one of those things where we sort of had to start from scratch, it had been four or five years since we put something out since ‘Cocoa Sugar’. For us to get back together and get excited again with each other, all the ideas that everybody else brings – it’s great and this is topping off a great year”.

The award also comes with a financial prize of £20,000. This is the first time that any artist has won the award more than twice with Young Fathers winning back in 2014 for ‘Tape Two’ and in 2018 for ‘Cocoa Sugar‘.

In a five-star review of ‘Heavy Heavy’, NME said: “[It] is a passionate, soulful and often mesmerising work that will stick around long past the first listen. Succinct and underpinned by a catchy melodic structure, it continues Young Fathers’ peerless run of singular albums and further cements them as one of the more unique acts to exist today. As epitomised by the euphoria they evoke with the chord and tempo shifts heard on the album’s closer ‘Be Your Lady’, there simply is no one else like Young Fathers.”

Speaking to NME about the creation of their fourth LP, Massaquoi explained that the process of expelling energy has helped create an album that is “steeped in humanity”, immersing the listener in a cacophony of energetic percussion, synth noise and a majestic use of the human voice as instrumentation.

In other news, the group are set to play the Academy in Manchester tomorrow (October 28). From there, they will play Usher Hall in Edinburgh on October 31 and November 1.  Visit here for any last minute tickets.

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