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Dizzee Rascal beats Radiohead to the Mercury Music Prize
Dizzee Rascal won the 2003 Mercury Music Prize tonight at the Grosvenor House hotel in London with Boy in da Corner, one of eight debuts on a 12-album shortlist that also held Hail to the Thief. He is an 18-year-old MC from east London, and the £20,000 prize was handed to him by last year's winner, Ms Dynamite.
Radiohead started as joint favourites. When Jools Holland read out the shortlist at the Commonwealth Club on 22 July, William Hill priced Hail to the Thief and Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head, both Parlophone records, at 4-1, with Dizzee Rascal at 6-1. By the night, BBC News reports, the bookmakers had moved The Darkness to the front.
Accepting, Dizzee Rascal told the room to support British talent, because it is there. I want to thank God, my mum and my family and everyone in the underground.
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It is the third time a Radiohead record has lost the Mercury. OK Computer went down to Roni Size & Reprazent's New Forms in 1997, and Amnesiac to PJ Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea in 2001.
The 2003 Mercury shortlist
| # | Artist | Album | Odds, 22 July |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiohead | Hail to the Thief | 4-1 |
| 2 | Coldplay | A Rush of Blood to the Head | 4-1 |
| 3 | The Darkness | Permission to Land | 6-1 |
| 4 | Dizzee Rascal | Boy in da Corner (winner) | 6-1 |
| 5 | The Thrills | So Much for the City | 6-1 |
| 6 | Athlete | Vehicles & Animals | 8-1 |
| 7 | Terri Walker | Untitled | 8-1 |
| 8 | Floetry | Floetic | 10-1 |
| 9 | Soweto Kinch | Conversations with the Unseen | 10-1 |
| 10 | Martina Topley-Bird | Quixotic | 12-1 |
| 11 | Eliza Carthy | Anglicana | 12-1 |
| 12 | Lemon Jelly | Lost Horizons | 12-1 |
from the record
Go to Sleep · The promo, directed by Alex Rutterford.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →