Nick Grimshaw on Jack Antonoff’s “magic” and his NME Awards memories

Nick Grimshaw caught up with NME on the red carpet of the BandLab NME Awards 2022 last night, where he talked about the “magic” of Jack Antonoff as well as some of his favourite memories from NME awards past. Watch our full video interview with Grimmy above.

• READ MORE: BandLab NME Awards 2022 – full list of winners

Speaking of how he was “really excited to be out, really excited to celebrate some of our favourite artists of the year,” the radio and TV personality then looked back to his previous appearance at the NME Awards back in 2020 – when he and shared a pizza with Courtney Love ahead of her accepting the Icon Award.

“I was on a really fun table last time,” he recalled. “I had Courtney Love, Jaime Winstone, Annie Mac – some really great, feisty females.

Looking to ahead to who he was looking forward to catching up with at this year’s event, he said: “I saw Jazzie B is here from Soul II Soul, he’s one of my all-time favourites. I’m really looking forward to seeing [FKA] Twigs perform as well.”

Grimmy was at the ceremony to present Jack Antonoff with the Songwriter Award.

“He’s an amazing pop writer,” he said. “It’s such a skill to write a song that connects to so many people. He’s not just done it once – he’s consistently done with Lorde, Lana Del Rey and so many great pop stars. Whatever the magic is, he’s got it.”

Before he headed off to the tables, Grimshaw also told us about his plans for the rest of the year.

“I’m just doing a TV show at the moment that we just finished with Emma Willis for Channel 4 – and it was really fun. That starts in a month.”

Antonoff was unable to attend the NME Awards, but sent in a video acceptance speech.

“God damn! Thank you so much, NME. This means the world to me,” he said. “Songwriting Award means the absolute world to me. I’ve been writing songs since I was a kid.”

He continued. “Everyone out there who writes songs understands what a joyous and lonely place it can be, and how much it means when you share those songs. They’re like messages in a bottle you chuck out into the world and when you hear that one person, let alone a few people, let alone many people, let alone an award like this, it just makes you feel recognised for these thoughts you have.”

Antonoff also briefly showed off his studio space, before adding that he wished he was at the BandLab NME Awards 2022. “I love you guys,” he added

• READ MORE: NME’s Songwriter Award winner Jack Antonoff’s 10 best songs so far

The BandLab NME Awards 2022 also saw an opening performance from Sam Fender, as well as live appearances from Rina Sawayama, Griff and Sigrid, Godlike Genius winner FKA twigs, an historic collaborative set from Chvrches and Robert Smith, and an epic five-song closer from Bring Me The Horizon.

Check back for all the news, interviews, winners, photos and more from the BandLab NME Awards 2022.