Let’s hear it for London! A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about the Future Cool Music List being dominated by Londoners. And now a South Londoner has picked up one of the most prestigious accolades a musician can get – the Mercury Prize.

Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle from Streatham fought off tough competition from acts like La Roux and Florence and the Machine, who have much bigger profiles, to claim the prize, which was presented to her at the Grosvenor House Hotel.

Being a South London girl myself, I was really pleased that Miss Debelle scooped the £20,000 prize. It was certainly a surprise as far as I was concerned. After all, her album Speech Therapy hasn’t even shifted enough copies to reach the UK album chart, having sold fewer than 3,000 copies since it first went on sale in June. Of course, I’m sure that’s all set to change!

It’s little surprise to me that London is still fighting its corner in the world of music. Visiting London clubs on a regular basis, it’s easy to see why we’re such a major contender.

Congratulations on being the Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle, let’s hope you follow in the footsteps of previous successful winner Dizzee Rascal rather than the ill-fated ones of Miss Dynamite (sorry, who?).