As a frequent collaborator with Drake, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Solange, Sampha has made a name for himself with his delicate and soulful songwriting.
But while his voice has appeared on numerous hit records, it was his solo debut Process that won him the prestigious Mercury Prize.
En route to the @MercuryPrize 😬 pic.twitter.com/zC1k5xeDyo
— Sampha (@sampha) September 14, 2017
Born Sampha Sisay in south London, his mournful tones appeared on personal tracks such as Beyonce’s Mine, West’s Saint Pablo and Solange’s Don’t Touch My Hair.
After a string of songs with the electronic artist SBTRKT, he became a sought-after collaborator but decided to focus on a solo album by the end of 2013.
When his mother’s cancer returned in 2014 he moved to her house in Morden, south London to be with her.
She died in 2015 and the soft-spoken star told music magazine The Fader: “There’s not ‘the grieving process. It’s like a dream you never … It’s never gonna feel real.”
His prize-winning record includes the song he performed at the Mercury ceremony, the gospel ballad (No One Knows Me) Like The Piano, in which he sings about loss, his relationship with his mother and the instrument that has given him comfort.
So happy & honoured for Process to be nominated for the @MercuryPrize! Congratulations to all the other nominees too. Big love from Tokyo ❤️ pic.twitter.com/LtB8mFHKQ6
— Sampha (@sampha) July 27, 2017
In the track he sings: “No one knows me like the piano in my mother’s home/
You would show me I had something some people call a soul/
And you dropped out the sky, oh you arrived when I was three years old/
No one knows me like the piano in my mother’s home.”
He continues: “An angel by her side, all of the times I knew we couldn’t cope/
They said that it’s her time, no tears in sight, I kept the feelings close/
And you took hold of me and never, never, never let me go/
‘Cause no one knows me like the piano in my mother’s home.”
