IT2024: Jacqueline Springer In Conversation With... BERWYN

Industry Takeover is back for 2024, supporting the talent of tomorrow from the underground up...

Join us on Friday 27th September for Jacqueline Springer In Conversation With... BERWYN - powered by V&A East.
Expect a deep dive as Jacqueline Springer explores the life and times of BERWYN, Trinidad-born, Romford-raised rapper, singer, songwriter, producer and two-time Mercury Music Prize nominee.

About: Jacqueline Springer is Curator Africa & Diaspora: Performance at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Jacqueline’s professional background is in print & broadcast music journalism, undergraduate teaching, international guest lecturing and freelance event curation.
Beginning her media career in print, she was employed by the BBC as a Senior Broadcast Journalist in radio (working in entertainment news) and contributed to discussion (long and short form) on contemporary music, culture and representation. During her time at the corporation, Jacqueline was employed by Radio 1, 1Xtra, the Caribbean Service, the World Service and 6Music and contributed to output on BBC Radio 4, 5live and television (BBC Four, BBC2, BBC News Channel).

Jacqueline is also a co-founder of fashion, culture and identity studies event curation duo Union Black (London College of Fashion, British Library, the Victoria & Albert Museum) where the relationship between music, sartorial style, race and cultural identities are explored via bespoke commissions.

BERWYN
Having moved from Trinidad to Romford at the age of nine (the third generation of his family to make the move) BERWYN took just two weeks to write and record his debut mixtape, DEMOTAPE/VEGA, but it distils a lifetime of experiences existing on the fringes of London life. It’s raw and authentic, both lyrically and sonically, each song revealing further layers of Berwyn's life. If you want to know Berwyn's story, it's all there in Vega's tales of hope, hustle and struggle.
BERWYN was never meant to make a mixtape. He was supposed to leave London, return to his motherland of Trinidad and forget about the last few years. He’d gotten himself into trouble, living a life that “felt like dancing on the edge of a knife.” He knew if he kept going out onto the streets then something would happen. So he locked himself away for two weeks in a “shithole flat” and – on a diet of toast, W**d and insomnia – began writing and recording the music that would become Vega. Despite hardship, Berwyn is a natural optimist but this was effectively a last roll of the dice.

Following the mixtape’s release came the decision to add a spontaneous verse to his performance of ‘Glory’ in reaction to George Floyd’s death the night before it aired on the infamous ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ – a statement of intent that marked BERWYN as one of the most exciting talents making music today.

From that moment onwards, he honed his skills as a singer, songwriter, producer and collaborator by channelling raw and authentic experiences of London life into his music - a process that awarded him widespread acclaim including a top three finish in the BBC’s ‘Sound Of’ poll, a Mercury Prize shortlist, MOBO nominations and an NME Award.

Across the last 4 years he’s release two mixtapes DEMOTAPE/VEGA and TAPE2/FOMALHAUT, and the diverse EP ‘Bulletproof’ - inspired by his return to his Trinidadian birthplace following years of passport and visa issues that had shadowed him since arriving in the UK.
Having already made such an indelible mark on British music in such a few years, BERWYN has now released his debut album ‘Who Am I’. He has made a fiercely political and personal record that embodies everything that makes an artist truly exciting in 2024; he’s an authentic and uncompromising creative force, constantly evolving and blurring boundaries as he moves from rap, R&B, spoken word and poetry with an almost effortless fluidity.
In July 2024 BERWYN was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize - the second time he has been given this accolade.

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