The 11th edition of IMPALA’s Album of the Year award has been won by Austrian band My Ugly Clementine for Vitamin C, released on Austrian record label Ink Music.
My Ugly Clementine fought off competition from a shortlist of 25 albums across Europe.
This is the first time an Austrian band has won the award. My Ugly Clementine follow IMPALA award winners including Apparat, Gurr, Viagra Boys, Agnes Obel, The xx, Adele, Guadalupe Plata and Efterklang.
The group from Vienna are described by Ink Music as "a four-piece, non-male rock band telling stories about self-confidence, empowerment, self-love, respect and equal rights". The band have been invited to play at Eurosonic and Reeperbahn.
Sophie Lindinger from My Ugly Clementine said: "We are absolutely speechless and feel honoured. It’s strange to have written and produced this record in a DIY setting and to see it standing in line with these great artists and their magnificent works that won this award in the past 10 years. We are now even more desperately waiting to finally be able to go out and hit the stages again. We can’t wait to return all the love we got, just by sharing our message and music with the people out there. Love."
Hannes Tschürtz, founder of Ink Music, said: “For more than a year we put a lot of effort and work into the My Ugly Clementine’s debut Vitamin C. When it was finally released, it happened to be exactly when the pandemic struck, and everything was closed down. We often referred to the irony of this and suggested that this Vitamin C may help us overcoming this difficult period. And it indeed does. While My Ugly Clementine underline important issues – empowerment, equal rights, self-love, feminism – with every piece, they always have been a band full of joy and positivity, and therefore are the greatest companion you could possibly ask for, especially in times like these. We feel incredibly privileged to be working with these wonderful people and are happy and proud to see them getting the recognition they truly deserve.”
Helen Smith, executive chair of IMPALA, added: “Vitamin C is a great debut album from a band who managed to sell out their shows in record time (just wait till we can go to shows again...). My Ugly Clementine fought off some very tough competition and still emerged the clear winner with votes coming in from all across Europe. The album and the band have clear messages about avoiding gender stereotypes which IMPALA fully support - music is a great tool for tolerance and inclusion, so get Vitamin C on your playlist!”
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