British rapper Dave triumphed in the Best Contemporary Song category at Thursday’s Ivor Novello songwriting awards.
Dave bagged the coveted award for his track, ‘Question Time’, a politically-charged rap song which takes aim at Theresa May over the Grenfell Tower disaster, slams Brexit, questions the UK’s involvement in Syria and laments cuts to the NHS.
Right off the bat, the song opens with the lyric: “A question for the new Prime Minister, how’d you have a heart so sinister?”, and later brands May’s reaction to the Grenfell disaster as “dodging responsibility” and “ridiculous”.
Theresa May isn’t the only politician who Dave takes aim at on ‘Question Time’, though, as he lambasts David Cameron for “sneaking out the firing line” after the result of the Brexit referendum, and claims he “wants to put his trust” in Jeremy Corbyn, but has “trust issues”.
The Best Contemporary Song prize at the Ivor Novellos is awarded to tracks which “capture the moment and/or explore the boundaries of contemporary music”.
The big winner at the ceremony was Ed Sheeran, whose chart-topping song ‘Shape Of You’ was named Most Performed Work, while the man himself was also crowned Songwriter Of The Year.
Stormzy’s ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ took the Album prize, with Elbow winning one of the night’s other top awards, Best Song Musically And Lyrically, for ‘Magnificent (She Says)’.
Other winners included Shane MacGowan (Inspiration), Lionel Richie (Special International Award) and Billy Bragg (Outstanding Contribution To British Music).
Take a listen to Dave’s ‘Question Time’ in the video below: