Sampa the Great wins Australian music prize - the first artist to win prestigious award twice

Melbourne-based hip-hop artist Sampa the Great won the Australian music prize yesterday with her album 'The Return', two years after she first won the award for 2017 album 'Birds and the BEE9', making her the first artist in the history to win the Australian music prize twice, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Zambian-born Sampa Tembo thanked the judging panel for recognising an album “not written for radio play or commercial appeal”, the Music Network reports. The album deals with themes of migration and displacement. Sampa’s album beat out a shortlist that included recordings by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Thelma Plum, Amyl & the Sniffers and more. Previous winners of the AMP include Gurrumul, Augie March, Courtney Barnett and AB Original.