Sam Fender has raised £50,000 from ticket sales on his ‘People Watching’ tour for the charity Youth Music.
Fender was supported early in his career by the North East-based Youth Music-funded programme Generator and has now given back to the charity. His donation will be matched by Youth Music’s new Rescue The Roots campaign, a £2million fundraising initiative to tackle the funding crisis threatening grassroots youth music projects across the UK.
This means that in total, £100,000 will go directly to projects funded by Youth Music in the North East.
“I’m proud to support Youth Music and their ‘Rescue the Roots’ campaign,” said Fender. Help for young people in the arts is scarce – projects like these are so important.”
“We’re incredibly grateful to Sam for choosing to support Youth Music and young people in the North East,” said Carol Reid, interim Co-CEO at Youth Music. “Music can change young people’s lives, but too many still face barriers to accessing it, just because of where they live. This crucial funding will help ensure opportunity isn’t dictated by postcode. It’s really encouraging to see more and more successful artists giving back to grassroots music, which is often where they learn their craft.”
The charity has said that the donation will help to combat “persistent regional inequalities” highlighted in their Sound of the Next Generation (SONG) report which found that only half (52 per cent) of young people in the north of England see themselves as musical in comparison to 62 per cent of people in the south.
Fender previously adopted a £1 ticket levy on his tour to help support the survival of grassroots music venues. In September, it was confirmed the funds had helped support 38 grassroots music venues across the UK.
Last month, Fender claimed his first ever Number One single with his Olivia Dean collab ‘Rein Me In’, breaking the record for the most consecutive weeks spent in the Top 40 before reaching the top. Its 35-week climb has broken the previous record of 19 weeks set by Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ in 2014.
The pair also won a BRIT Award for Song of The Year earlier this month. Fender also won Alternative/Rock Act – meaning he has five BRITs trophies to his name, as well as the 2025 Mercury Prize for ‘People Watching’.