Sam Fender apparently raised £50,000 for the charity Youth Music, just from ticket sales on his People Watching tour.
The singer-songwriter is, in a sense, giving back to the charity, as during the early days of his career, he was supported by the North East-based Youth Music-funded programme Generator. His donation will be matched by Youth Music’s new Rescue The Roots campaign, an initiative that aims to tackle the funding crisis threatening grassroots youth music projects across the UK.
“I’m proud to support Youth Music and their ‘Rescue the Roots’ campaign,” the 31-year-old star said in a statement. “Help for young people in the arts is scarce – projects like these are so important.”
“We’re incredibly grateful to Sam for choosing to support Youth Music and young people in the North East,” said Carol Reid, the interim Co-CEO at Youth Music. “Music can change young people’s lives, but too many still face barriers to accessing it, just because of where they live.
"This crucial funding will help ensure opportunity isn’t dictated by postcode. It’s really encouraging to see more and more successful artists giving back to grassroots music, which is often where they learn their craft.”
Youth Music has already said that the £100,000 will go towards helping to combat “persistent regional inequalities” in terms of the provision and access to music for young people. According to research published in the charity’s Sound Of The Next Generation (SONG) report, only half of young people in the North of England describe themselves as “musical”, compared to 62% in the South.
It’s been another incredible few weeks for Fender, who achieved his first UK Number One recently with the Olivia Dean collab Rein Me In. The track was also notable for being one of the slowest climbers to the top on record, spending 35 weeks in the chart before it finally reached the summit.
The track also won Song Of The Year at the Brits last month, meaning that he now has five Brits trophies to his name.
