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Brit Awards 2021: Pop singer Griff wins Rising Star prize

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Griff's current single Black Hole is on the BBC Radio 1 playlist

Up-and-coming singer Griff has been named the winner of the Brit Awards' Rising Star prize, which recognises pop's most promising ones to watch.

The 20-year-old from Hertfordshire - full name Sarah Faith Griffiths - provided the song for Disney's first Christmas TV advert last year.

She also appeared on the BBC's Sound of 2021 list, and has been endorsed by Taylor Swift.

She follows past winners including Celeste, Jorja Smith and Adele.

"In my head I'm still screaming from the phone call when I found out," Griff said in a statement. "It's honestly such a miracle: how on earth did we manage to win a Brit and break through during a pandemic?"

Who is Griff?

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  • From Kings Langley, she discovered music after hearing Stevie Wonder at the age of five, and learned to sing in her church choir, but she says "the first album I think I really loved out of choice was Taylor Swift's Fearless".
  • Griff had her first recording session at the age of 10, "just doing embarrassing things in a band". By the time she left school, she'd signed a deal with Warner Music, releasing her first single in July 2019, two weeks after she finished her A-levels.
  • Last year she took over the Tate Modern for her second ever London show, and her song Love Is A Compass was used on Disney's Christmas advert.
  • Her current single Black Hole was described by The Guardian as a "gloriously melodramatic electropop rocket" and is on BBC Radio 1's A-list.

Read more: Bedroom pop star Griff takes fifth place in the BBC Sound of 2021

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The Brits prize was formerly known as the Critics' Choice, but has now been rebranded the Rising Star. Other past winners include Sam Fender, Rag 'n' Bone Man, James Bay, Sam Smith, Emeli Sande and Jessie J.

This year's other nominees were British-Japanese singer Rina Sawayama and Coventry rapper Pa Salieu, who won the BBC's Sound of 2021 earlier this year.

The rest of this year's Brit Award winners will be announced at a ceremony on 11 May.

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