Sam Fender has handed over the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound award prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which works to save the United Kingdom's independent music venues.
Fender was awarded the cheque on mid-October as his new release the album was chosen as the top album of the previous year.
He has opted to donate the funds to the MVT, in recognition of the vital role grassroots venues had in his early career.
"As an artist couldn't be pursuing what I am doing today if it weren't for all the performances I played around the region, and elsewhere, when I was starting out," said the artist. "These spaces are iconic, but they are facing challenges."
Since the start of 2023, more than 150 of these locations have shut down – about one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, well-known musicians such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its initiatives to keep the scene afloat, by adding a small levy to their ticket prices, which supports local stages.
Sam Fender also took part, generating in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to assist 38 grassroots venues across Britain.
The money helped venues that were facing potential shutdown due to issues stemming from flooding, fire incidents and bereavements, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and noise complaints.
Some locations were granted financial assistance in upgrading facilities and gear that helped artists and concertgoers.
"The notion that funds from performances in big venues helps the smaller venues, where it all starts for artists like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has stated.
Fender is not the first artist to give his honor winnings to good deeds.
In they won the prize in the year 1996 for their record Different Class, frontman Cocker announced that the group would donate their winnings to the organization War Child.
In 2002, artist the artist shared her prize among several organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I gave a thousand pounds to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they required better apparatus," she told the media.
In recent years, the band gave their prize money to the local youth club that nurtured their group, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.
And winners that year M People donated their winnings to a MS organization after a friend was found to have the condition.
"Receiving the award was sufficient," stated artist the singer. "The money was the cherry on top but we could do without the extra, because we had the main prize. So our success affected somebody else's life."
In the past week, the trust shared it had saved two grassroots venues in south-east England, by placing them under public stewardship.
The Joiners in that area and the other in that location were bought under the community ownership initiative, which is funded by Arts Council England and enthusiasts who buy "stakes" in the buildings.
