Dua Lipa, J Hus and I May Destroy You lead South Bank Sky Arts Awards nominations

7 June 2021

Dua Lipa, J Hus and 'I May Destroy You' are among the nominees for The South Bank Sky Arts Awards

Dua Lipa

The annual ceremony, which celebrates every corner of the arts from Dance, Theatre, Pop, to TV Drama, Film, Classical Music, Literature, Opera, and more, is back on July 18.

The 25th anniversary event will be the first in-person awards to take place at The Savoy theatre in London, and will be presented and edited by broadcasting legend Melvyn Bragg.

The Pop category sees albums by 'Don't Start Now' hitmaker Dua ('Future Nostaliga'), rapper J Hus ('Big Conspiracy') and British music collective SAULT ('Untitled (Black Is))' in the running.

While the TV Drama nominees include 'I May Destroy You', which saw Michaela Coel scoop the Leading Actress prize as well as Best Mini-Series award and the Best Writer (Drama) at Sunday night's (06.06.21) BAFTA Television Awards, 'Small Axe' and 'Industry'.

Elsewhere, sitcom 'Home', 'Feel Good' and 'Ghosts' are up for the Comedy prize, and 'Rocks', 'Saint Maud' and 'His House' are nominated in the Film category.

New for 2021, the ceremony will honour an institution and an individual with The Sky Arts Award for Innovation in the Arts During The Pandemic, "to acknowledge their outstanding work during the Covid-19 global pandemic".

Melvyn Bragg said: "This is the 25th anniversary of the Awards and, with luck, we are back to a huge gathering of some of the finest artists across the board in the United Kingdom. This is an Awards show which also includes performances of the highest quality – and is altogether a positive and happy statement of the Arts in Britain today."

Phillip Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts, Sky, said: "After a year like no other where performers and artists across all the genres have found new and innovative ways of working it's with a real sense of excitement and pride that we welcome them back to celebrate all their amazing achievements in 2020. And in this its 25 year the South Bank Sky Arts Awards promises to be even more special."

The South Banks Sky Arts Awards air on July 22 at 9pm on Sky Arts.

An abridged list of the nominees are:

Pop

Dua Lipa - 'Future Nostalgia'

J Hus - 'Big Conspiracy'

SAULT – 'Untitled (Black Is)'

TV Drama

'I May Destroy You' - BBC One / HBO

'Small Axe' - BBC One

'Industry' – Bad Wolf/ BBC / HBO

Comedy

'Home', Series 2 - Jantaculum / Channel X / Channel 4