Stormzy said his musical ambition is to be bigger than Ed Sheeran as he collected the award for Album of the Year at the 2018 Ivor Novello Awards.
The 24-year-old grime star picked up the prize for his debut LP ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’, and gave a shout out to his pal – who won the Songwriter of the Year and PRS for Music Most Performed Work prize for ‘Shape of You’ along with Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac – because he "strives" to be as successful as the global megastar.
In his acceptance speech at the ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House on Thursday (31.05.18), the 27-year-old singer/songwriter said: "Randomly I want to thank my brother Ed Sheeran.
"Although he didn’t work with me on this album, he’s someone who I always strive to be like, that’s my benchmark.
"Every song I write I say, ‘Would Ed do this?’
"And if Ed would’ve done that then I know I’m good.
"He got Songwriter of the Year this year, I’m coming for you next year!"
The ‘Big For Your Boots’ hitmaker – who is dating BBC Radio 1 presenter Maya Jama – said he was "very happy" with his achievement because he was being recognised for his "creativity" and "hard work" at the awards which honour the industry’s finest songwriters.
Asked how he was feeling about his win, he said: "Yes! Very, very happy right now.
"The Ivor Novellos just recognised your pen and your art, so I proper wanted to win this one.
"I’m so happy to win this one, I worked so hard on my album on an artistic point of view, I made sure my pen was as sharp as it could be, made sure my creative brain was as sharp as it could be … I worked so hard on this album so thank you so much."
Stormzy thanks Ed Sheeran for challenging his songwriting skills
