London rapper Speech Debelle won the Mercury Music Prize for the best British album of the year, London, September 8, 2009. [icpress.cn]

Hip-hop artist Speech Debelle has won the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for the best British album of the year with her debut album Speech Therapy, which has sold fewer than 3,000 copies.

The 26-year-old south Londoner, who beat contenders including La Roux and Kasabian to win the ￡20,000 prize, is the prize's first female winner since 2002, when Ms Dynamite picked up the trophy.

"I feel so good. It feels better than I imagined. My family's here. My friends are here. I'm from south London - I don't get emotional - I'm emotional," she said at the ceremony at Grosvenor House Hotel in central London.

"This proves if you believe in something and you think you can do it, you can achieve it."

When the shortlist was announced in July, the judges described Debelle's album as "a remarkable new voice in British hip-hop, tough, warm and reflective".

The winning album, picked from a shortlist of 12 albums by a panel of judges, is likely to receive a giant boost in sales following the award.

The 12 albums were shortlisted based solely on musical merit without reference to record sales or live performances, organisers said.

Fellow nominees Kasabian said they felt confident before the ceremony - but despite boasting "our name's engraved on it", they missed out this time.

Last year Elbow walked away with the award for their album The Seldom Seen Kid.

The Mercury Prize, currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom or Ireland. It has a reputation for being awarded to outside chancers rather than the favourites.

(CRI/Agencies September 11, 2009)