PJ Harvey has just become the first act in the history of the Mercury Prize to win for the second time with her album Let England Shake. Inspired by conflicts and wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan, she beat out some stiff competition from Adele and Elbow to win the £20,000 prize.
PJ Harvey, who can also lay claim the being the first female winner of the prize, winning in September 2001 with Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, said after winning for the second time “It’s really good to be here this evening, because when I last won 10 years ago I was in Washington DC watching the Pentagon burning from my hotel window.
“So much has happened since then. This album took me a long time to write. It was very important to me. I wanted to make something meaningful, not just for myself but for other people, and hopefully to make something that would last.”
Harvey was unable to accept her award in 2001 due to touring commitments in the US. Describing her first victory on September 11, she said: “Ten years ago feels like such a surreal experience, I’m sure for everybody, that my only memory of that day really is of being in my hotel room and seeing the Pentagon burning.”
“I felt so separate from the prize that was being given here at that time and I’m sure it must have felt very odd for all the people that were here so today to have the chance again to be here and actually receive the award means a great deal to me.”
She did not reveal what she would be putting the prize money towards but admitted “I’m a writer that works all the time, I write every day so already my work has started to develop into what will be the next project.”
