After co-presenting the award for Best TV Actor to This Way Up‘s Aisling Bea, Munya Chawawa and Amelia Dimoldenberg paid a visit to the BandLab NME Awards 2022 winners’ room. Watch our full video interview above.
“Amelia and the one man she couldn’t get into the chicken shop!” Chawawa shouted before Dimoldenberg pointed out that he’d already been a guest on her Chicken Shop Date series twice.
All jokes aside, the pair did take a moment to dwell on their tight friendship, with Chawawa discussing their “electric chemistry” and saying he did his “first-ever interview with Amelia five years ago and she’s always been a champion of my [work] so just standing in her presence is making me emotional.”
Amelia responded: “He’s crying. He actually doesn’t cry [with] tears it’s like inward tears.” Chawawa quipped back: “I cry from the soul and it is moist down there right now.”
When the pair were asked about their night so far, Chawawa said “I haven’t had any pizza yet which I’m really disappointed by.” Dimoldenberg did note, however, that fellow awards attendee Jamie Demetriou, “was eating loads of pizza” adding that “he was really gobbling it down.”
After commenting that Demetriou was in fact a “pizza machine” Chawawa told NME that his desire for pizza came with a risk.
“It’s all vegan which I’m not adverse to,” he said. “But vegan pizza can be nutty and I have an allergy. So, will I die tonight? We don’t know.”
The friends then talked about who they’d met that evening with the Chicken Shop host, sharing, “I met Aisling [Bea] for the first time” before pointing out that Bea and Chawawa were like “best mates running around and hugging” which made her feel like a “third wheel.”
Outside of hanging out with Bea, the comedian shared his other plans for the evening, telling us that the fact that he was doing a backstage interview during a performance instead of “crowd surfing naked” was “the biggest travesty of the night.”
When asked about other attendees he’d like to rub elbows with during music’s wildest night, Chawawa said Liam Gallagher had already been “constantly asking me for a selfie and I’m like mate as you were!” right before NME told him that Gallagher was in fact, not at the ceremony.
The hilarious duo both mentioned Sam Fender’s opening performance as a highlight of their evening.
“Sam Fender is a legend, did you know that he turns every award into a beer pump?” Chawawa said.
He then added that if Fender took home a giant bronze middle finger that evening (which, he later did) and turned it into a beer pump, he’d “literally be able to say to people pull my finger” which, they both agreed would be the ultimate dream.
Before heading back into London’s O2 Academy Brixton, the pair shared their dream picks for Chicken Shop Date.
Dimoldenberg, who’d mentioned wanting to take Fender on a Chicken Shop Date earlier that night on the red carpet, doubled-down on that decision, before adding: “Aitch is here, I’d go on a date with him again.”
Although Chawawa was not asked, he also dropped his name for most eligible date.
“As for me, thanks for asking,” he said. “I would say Doja Cat definitely.” He also said that the pop star had shared his lyrics on twitter multiple times and if they ever got together it would be “raining cats and dogs you know what I mean.”
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 the latest news, interviews, winners and more from the BandLab NME Awards 2022.