Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis has been crowned as this year’s Godlike Genius at the NME Awards 2020. Watch her speech above.
Returning to the O2 Academy Brixton and hosted by Katherine Ryan and Julie Adenuga, the NME Awards celebrates the best of the last 12 months in music. See the full list of winners here.
Eavis follows in the footsteps of the likes of Blondie, U2, The Cure, Coldplay and the Pet Shop Boys in receiving the Godlike Genius Award. The award celebrates Eavis’ outstanding contribution to Glastonbury in its 50th year, after having the baton passed to her by her father, Glasto founder Michael Eavis, who himself was named Godlike Genius in 1996. Eavis becomes the first non-performer to win the Godlike Genius accolade in almost 20 years.
Taking to the stage to accept her award, which was presented by Billy Bragg and Taylor Swift, Emily Eavis said: “Thank you so much! Thanks NME. I watched my dad pick this up when I was 16, and I was like ‘I would never do it’. But now, I’m just in so deep.
“Thanks to NME, and thanks to my dad for his support, my husband Nick and the 25 people on our table who run Glastonbury. This is about the whole team and all the amazing people that come each year. It stuns me every year, and in 2019 when we got rid of plastic, it was a huge leap forward. I looked around and thought ‘This is fucking incredible’.
“This is for all the female artists as well.”
The NME Awards 2020 opened with a performance of ‘Deal Wiv it’ from Mura Masa and Slowthai, followed by subsequent performances from Beabadoobee, Yungblud, AJ Tracey and FKA Twigs. The 1975 closed the event with a show-stopping headline performance.
Find all the news and action from the big event at NME.com/awards.