Sky Arts South Bank Awards

7 August 2019

Premier provided red carpet PR services for the prestigious South Bank Sky Arts Awards, the only awards ceremony in the world that celebrates the complete range of the arts. Artists from across the spectrum of British culture were honoured for their achievements at the star-studded event, including Sir Lenny Henry who was awarded the coveted Outstanding Achievement Award.

Hosted by The South Bank Show presenter and editor Melvyn Bragg, the South Bank Sky Arts Awards celebrates achievements in the arts across 10 categories - TV Drama, Classical Music, Theatre, Comedy, Dance, Film, Visual Art, Pop, Literature and Opera.

Joining the list of illustrious previous winners, this year’s ceremony saw Lily Allen take home the Pop award for her album No Shame, while The Favourite triumphed in the Film category. English National Ballet was victorious with Playlist (Track 1,2) in the Dance category, while Derry Girls took home the Comedy accolade. Acclaimed author Diana Evans scooped the prize for Literature for her stunning novel Ordinary People.

Other winners at the awards included Stephen Daldry’s production of The Inheritance in the Theatre category, English National Opera’s Porgy and Bess for Opera, Pages of the Sea by Danny Boyle for Visual Art, A Very English Scandal for TV Drama and The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Debussy Festival for Classical Music.

Guests were treated to performances by Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the 2017 Times Breakthrough Award winner who performed Hallelujah with Isata Kanneh-Mason, and Freya Ridings sang her first charting single Lost Without You. There were operatic performances from Angela Gheorghiu with O Mio Babbino Caro and Joseph Calleja with La Vie En Rose, both accompanied by Paul Wynne Griffiths, and a reading by Naomie Harris. Presenters this year included a wealth of talent from the arts world: Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith (TV Drama), Jamael Westman (Theatre), Himesh Patel (Film), Polly Morgan (Visual Art) Russell Maliphant (Dance), Benjamin Zephaniah (Literature), Jess Gillam (Classical Music), Joseph Calleja (Opera), Katherine Ryan (Comedy) and Mica Paris (Pop).