Singer James Blake beats Bowie to win Mercury Prize His album, Overgrown, was awarded four stars by the Telegraph on its release in March, as critic Neil McCormick called it "music of emotion and imagination, shifting perspectives in ways that are deliciously intangible, intent on moving the heart rather than the feet." He beat a short list including Arctic Monkeys, who won in 2006 with their album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, and David Bowie for his surprise new release The Next Day. Other nominees had included Laura Mvula, the bookies' favourite, Disclosure, Foals, Laura Marling, Jon Hopkins, Savages, Jake Bugg, Rudimental and Villagers. Speaking moments after picking up the prize on stage, he confessed he was "jubilant and confused," saying: "Its a moment you don't really expect to happen to you. It's my first prize, except a tennis trophy at 12-years-old in school. I hold them in equal esteem. When asked how it felt to pip David Bowie to the prize, he said: " I don't think I beat him; I don't think that's how this prize works. He's amazing to be in the running with so many albums. A lot of people do their best work when they're young, and its always disappointing to me when they don't continue in that vein and innovate. So David Bowie is an example to people like me. He added: "I feel like I deserve it as much as anyone else did. That's the right answer, isn't it? There's a lot of great people involved. He said he was pleased he won for his second album rather than his first, which earned him a nomination two years ago, because he was in a position to "handle the pressure" which came alongside. When asked how the prize would change his career, he said "people might be louder" at his gigs and he may even "stand up on stage." When asked what he would do with the £20,000 prize money, he said he had not yet considered it carefully but would not "p--- it up the wall." "I'll make sure it gets put to good use," he added. When asked what his next move would be, he told an assembled press conference: "Get drunk?"