The Youth Music Awards took place at St George's Hall in Liverpool this week, marking the first time the ceremony has been hosted outside London. The event champions grassroots acts and recognises the artists shaping the future of British music, and this year it celebrated the eclectic sounds emerging from the city's next generation of musicians.
Liverpool's musical heritage and new talent
Liverpool, known as the birthplace of The Beatles and the founding city of Merseybeat, has a strong regional identity that influences songwriters globally. The ceremony highlighted that the city's music scene extends far beyond this style, with rap, soul and R&B pulsing through the work of young Scouse artists.
Wavertree's KOJ, a Punk Panther musician, received the Lyricist Award at the ceremony in his home city. Speaking at the event, he discussed broadening the image of Liverpool's cultural archetypes: "The hardest thing is getting what truly is out to the world."
Artists on the city's creative movement
KOJ, who performed at Radio 1's Big Weekend last year, explained why Liverpool is producing such exciting rap artists: "We don't ask for permission [in Liverpool], we have a stern, righteous, community based essence here and I think that runs through my music. Wavertree and South Liverpool is different to what people on the telly think of Scousers. It's shaped me to be unapologetic, raw and proud."
He added: "What's going big from Liverpool now is a Southerner's lens on Liverpool, but it's so much more than the 110s thing. That's a big part of our culture. I'm not saying it's not, but there's so much more."
Recognising challenges and celebrating the scene
The Youth Music Awards came to Liverpool to recognise the growing challenges people from underprivileged backgrounds face in getting their voice heard in the music industry. Waiting lists for funded projects stand at 20% higher in the North than in the South, a theme at the heart of KOJ's opening track, Humble Abode, which repeated: "Talent won't grow if we're not shown."
Other Liverpool artists at the event included DAYZY, who praised the local scene: "You've got the likes of EsDeeKid, KOJ, Cass, these crazy artists who are absolutely smashing it and it's good to see. The scene is really cool and there's a lot of different sounds." Bethane, another Scouse artist, said: "There's so many genres. There is indie, there's rap. I do R&B soul so we've got so much to offer and something like this is really highlighting it."
Bethane also drew on Liverpool's heritage for inspiration: "For me, you want to be a singer and you go after that. You sometimes think, 'What am I doing?' But The Beatles are just four Scouse lads and they're the biggest band of all time. If they can do it, the sky is the limit."
Dan Astles, producing Indie Folk music, said: "I'm very biased because it contains a lot of my mates but I think there's some amazing music coming from Liverpool and we've got some infrastructure that we can go and do our thing so it's nice to show that on a nice like tonight." Dan Haggis from The Wombats, presenting an award, said giving artists the chance to have their voice heard is vital so Scousers can continue to innovate and shape music as his group did when starting out 20 years ago. He said: "Without those breeding grounds [The Wombats] wouldn't have met, if it wasn't for LIPA and all the venues we got to play when we were coming up. To shine the spotlight outside of London is amazing and can see what a great city Liverpool is."
