Ciaran Lavery wins Northern Ireland Music Prize 2016

Ciaran Lavery picks up the Northern Ireland Music Prize 2016 on Friday.

Co Antrim singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery has been awarded the Northern Ireland Music Prize 2016.

The artist’s second album, ‘Let Bad In’ was selected as the best release by a selection of music industry and media figures from Northern Ireland.

This year has been an incredible year already for Ciaran, from clocking up over 56 million streams on Spotify, to performing at Willie Nelson’s range as part of South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, as well as touring the USA, Canada and Europe.

He is currently recording his third record and plans to release a live album on 9 December.

Charlotte Dryden, CEO of Oh Yeah said: “The shortlist was outstanding again this year, but Ciaran Lavery is such a worthy winner. Northern Irish artists are doing us proud, locally, nationally and internationally making an impact.

“The Sound of Belfast festival programme continues to promote the great potential and celebrated names of NI Music from grassroots to celebrated names. Ciaran Lavery is an artist to be celebrated and we think he has an amazing future ahead of him.”

Ash were presented with the Oh Yeah Legend Award.

Lavery was presented with the award at a special event on Friday at the Mandela Hall in Belfast, which saw performances from nominees and Co Down band Ash were also presented with this year’s Oh Yeah Legend Award.

The accolade recognises the "exceptional contribution" of a musician or a music industry figure from Northern Ireland.

After being presented with the prize, Ash performed their debut album 1977, which was released 20 years ago.

The Legend Award announcement comes as the band embarks on a tour to mark the 20th anniversary release.