David Bowie has received a posthumous nomination for his final album Blackstar at the 2017 South Bank Sky Arts Awards almost 17 months after its release.
The late singer’s album, which was released in January 2016 two days before his death, has been shortlisted for the Pop Music award alongside The 1975’s record I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It as well as Konnichiwa by grime artist Skepta.
All three albums were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize last year (16) and Skepta emerged victorious on that occasion.
The awards also recognize talent in British theatre, television, film and dance. Happy Valley, National Treasure and The Crown are up for the TV Drama prize, while TV shows Camping, Fleabag and People Just Do Nothing will compete for the Comedy prize.
National Treasure’s writer Jack Thorne receives a second nomination for co-writing stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which broke records with nine wins at the Olivier Awards earlier this year. The production will compete against The Shakespeare Trilogy and Yerma, which starred an Olivier Award-winning Billie Piper, for the Theatre award.
Other nominees include American Honey, I, Daniel Blake, and Under the Shadow for the Film prize, and Zadie Smith’s Swing Time, Rose Tremain’s The Gustav Sonata, and Hisham Matar’s The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between for the Literature accolade.
Winners will be announced on 9 July (17) at the Savoy Hotel in London.
Bowie died in January 2016 at the age of 69 after a battle with liver cancer.
