Debelle beat out other nominees for the award which included expected winners Florence and the Machine and Kasabian, as well as more experienced veteran artists La Roux, Glasvegas, Friendly Fires, and Bat for Lashes. Debelle’s win continued a running tradition for Mercury judges who have been making unexpected choices for winners.

The Mercury Prize has been being awarded every year since being founded in 1992. Previously the prize show was sponsored by the Nationwide Building Society, but has since had Barclaycard take over sponsorship. The prizes are notorious for recognizing newcomers or non-mainstream acts, and typically will put different genres up against each other in the same categories. The winner of the prize is the recipient of 20,000 pounds, although the real prestige is in the actual honor itself.

Nominated acts are judged by various critics and industry professionals, and the award focuses solely on musical talent, record sales, media exposure, and live performances are not taken into consideration. Most notable artists to have received this award in the past include Dizzee Rascal, Badly Drawn Boy, and last year’s winner Elbow for “The Seldom Seen Kid”. Robbie Williams and Radiohead have both been nominated for the award but never won.

Martin Talbot, the Official Charts Company managing director, said that after her win Speech Debelle will see a surge in popularity for her music as well as interest from record execs as well. He also went on to say that Debelle’s album is one of the less established album to win the Mercury Prize and the win should boost her sales significantly.

Speech Debelle is a 26 year old rapper whose debut album “Speech Therapy” dropped last June. Debelle hails from South London.

Noel Gallagher went has far as to quit the band last week, posting on his Twitter account that he had had enough. Apparently, the split came shortly after Liam made a comment that Noel may not be the biological father to his 9 year old daughter, Anais. Noel stated on his Twitter that Liam had gone to far and he could no longer be a part of the band.

Noel, who helped co-found the popular 90’s rock band with his brother, Liam Gallagher, claims the split is permanent and he has no intentions to return to the band. The band, which has been together for 18 years, has famously and publicly dealt with the brothers rocky relationship throughout the band’s history.

However, the row between the brothers last week has been the largest to date, and even caused the band to cancel their scheduled performance in Paris last Friday.

“I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,” Noel writes on his Oasisinet.com blog. “The level of verbal and violent intimidation towards me, my family [and] friends . . . has become intolerable.”

Reps for the band have said that the decision whether or not to continue without Noel is still being made. Fans are shocked by the sudden news, as just two weeks ago Oasis cancelled another gig at the V Festival due to Liam suffering laryngitis.

Many fans are speculating that the split is temporary, with even Noel and Liam’s mother reporting that the row may just be a temporary bump in the road for the band.

Alan McGee, the man responsible for discovering Oasis, however, made a more definitive statement when he said: “[This is] a sad day for music.”

Thanks to philly.com for the above quotes, for more information on this story please visit their website.