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The star has handed over the entirety of his £25k award cash to the MVT, which works to save the UK's grassroots concert spaces.

The star was given the award on October 16 as his new release People Watching was declared the best record of the past year.

Fender has chosen to hand the money over to the trust, in recognition of the vital role local spots played in his initial steps.

"As an artist wouldn't be doing this success if it hadn't been for all the performances I performed around the area, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," said Sam Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are in difficulty."

Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – roughly one-sixth of the total UK scene.

In the last year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by including a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits smaller concert halls.

He also took part, collecting more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help numerous small stages across the UK.

The money supported spaces that were dealing with potential shutdown due to challenges stemming from flooding, blazes and bereavements, as well as permit problems, conflicts and sound issues.

Other venues received funding support in modernizing infrastructure and technical equipment that helped artists and concertgoers.

"The notion that money from shows in large arenas helps the local stages, where it all starts for artists like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has stated.

He is far from the only musician to give his award funds to worthy causes.

When Pulp earned the trophy in the mid-90s for their album Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would donate their cash to the charity War Child.

That year, artist the artist shared her prize among multiple charities, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"I also gave a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they needed better apparatus," Ms Dynamite shared with the media.

Previously, they gave their funds to the community center that nurtured their band, as well as other local music groups.

And winners that year the group gave their award to a charity for MS after a close contact was diagnosed the illness.

"Receiving the award was ample," said vocalist Heather Small. "The cash was the bonus but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our victory touched another person's life."

Recently, the trust revealed it had saved two small stages in that region, by placing them under local control.

The first in that area and the other in that location were acquired under the community ownership scheme, which is backed by Arts Council England and supporters who acquire "stakes" in the buildings.