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The artist has given the full amount of his £25,000 Mercury Prize prize money to the MVT, which functions to protect the UK's small live music spots.

The star was given the cheque on 16 October as his latest record his work was chosen as the top album of the previous year.

He has chosen to donate the funds to the MVT, in appreciation of the vital role small stages fulfilled in his initial steps.

"I would not have achieved what I am doing today if it weren't for all the gigs I performed around the region, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," stated Fender. "These locations are renowned, but they are in difficulty."

Since the start of 2023, more than 150 of these locations have permanently closed – approximately 16% of the entire UK sector.

Over the past year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the MVT in its initiatives to help venues survive, by applying a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which supports local stages.

Fender also joined in, generating over £100k on his recent tour to help thirty-eight grassroots venues across the UK.

The donation helped locations that were facing imminent closure due to challenges caused by water damage, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, court cases and neighbor objections.

Other venues received monetary aid in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that helped musicians and concertgoers.

"The notion that funds from concerts in large arenas backs the smaller venues, where it all starts for musicians like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has stated.

He is not the first artist to give his award prize money to worthy causes.

In they won the trophy in the year 1996 for their album Different Class, vocalist Cocker stated that the band would donate their winnings to the organization the charity.

In 2002, musician Ms Dynamite split her bounty across multiple good causes, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"Additionally, I contributed a grand to the center, to their gymnastics program, because I did gymnastics when I was younger and they lacked better apparatus," she shared with the media.

Previously, Ezra Collective gave their prize money to the youth organization that supported their group, in addition to other independent music bodies.

Additionally winners that year they contributed their award to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the illness.

"Winning was sufficient," remarked vocalist the singer. "The cash was the extra but we didn't require the extra, because we had the cake. So our winning impacted another person's life."

Last week, the MVT revealed it had saved two grassroots venues in south-east England, by bringing them into public stewardship.

One venue in Southampton and the second in the city were acquired under the community ownership initiative, which is backed by a national body and music fans who acquire "stakes" in the properties.