Being one of the younger mainstream music awards, The Brits have usually had a tendency to be less regimented and a bit more fun than some of their rivals. This year they shook a few things up by having the nominations ceremony broadcast live and this year trying to reach the younger generation by having a well-known YouTuber, Caspar Lee, do a parallel social broadcast, but what were the key moments of the ceremony?
The ceremony opened up with Little Mix appearing like queens, carried on sedan chairs, dressed as disco balls, leaping to the stage and performing the single ubiquitous from the latter half of 2016, Shout Out To My Ex. It’s a punchy, poppy song that breathes life into the ceremony, sadly this breath fails to reach into the presenters.
It may be worth mentioning that neither Emma Willis nor Dermot O’Leary were the original choices for the presenters of the ceremony, that was supposed to go to Michael Bublé. However, the man of the hour was (rightfully) at his son’s side as he continues his battle with liver cancer. The two stand-ins may have been wooden and a bit lost at points, even despite Dermot’s near constant presence on our screens, he didn’t seem totally ready. That said they performed their job functionally if not admirably and did, in fairness, loosen up as the night ran on.
With racial controversy rearing its head at many an American award ceremony of late (#oscarssowhite), including Adele mentioning her fellow nominee’s success at the Grammy’s having beaten Beyonce to the award, the Brit’s managed to mostly avoid any such controversies with Beyoncé, Drake, Emeli Sande and A Tribe Called Quest all taking awards. Perhaps this is taking note of issues affecting ceremonies in the States, or we’re simply awarding on the grounds of merit, or indeed, we are more inclusive. These points aside, onto the awards themselves.
In one key similarity to the Grammys, David Bowie was the big winner of the night with two awards to his name, The MasterCard Best Album of the Year and British Male Solo Artist both posthumously going to the late great Ziggy Stardust. Having been referred to as The King, by Noel Gallagher presenting the MasterCard award to Bowie’s son, Duncan, who praised his father for his support of those who were odd, or a little strange or misplaced in a succinct but sweet speech.
Marking another great loss to the music industry, the three surviving members of Wham! gave a heartfelt, emotional speech between the three of them to pay respect to George Michael. An audible hush fell over the crowd as the trio spoke, culminating with both Pepsi and Shirlie choking up by the end of their speeches. The tribute was finished by Chris Martin of Coldplay taking to the stage and performing a heartfelt ballad over a montage of footage of George himself.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however! Katy Perry’s performance was comfortably a high point for this reviewer. She performed a lively duet with Skip Marley and brought the house down, in the literal sense. One of Perry’s backing dancers (dressed as houses amongst two large, skeletal representations of what we can assume are Donald Trump and Teresa May) manage to miss their footing and tumble into the crowd, and so the house came falling down. Little Mix kept a more jovial theme going as well by managing to get lost going back to the stage to collect their award, causing their intro music to start twice. The bewildered foursome remained endearing by stating they were busy chatting as they never expected to win and in their confusion, got lost navigating through the tables.
One unique award was the Best Music Video Award, all decided with an online vote as the ceremony carried on, a definite way to keep viewers, particularly the younger generations, involved with the ceremony. Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger cosied up (as much as the man is capable of) to present the award together and the mogul could barely hide his smug smile as his own cash cow, One Direction took the award, beating off competition from rogue member Zayn Malik to take it home. One would imagine that despite not winning, Little Mix are probably happy that Zayn didn’t take it too.
The most disappointing moment(s) of the ceremony came with Bruno Mars’ take to the O2’s stage. Despite very little stage presence or real show of his singing abilities, he managed to nearly flawlessly pull off a Fresh Price of Bel Air look-a-like style to make for a bizarre segue into an almost welcome ad break. Although not strictly a moment, this reviewer has to state that the second disappointing moment goes to Caspar Lee’s social media coverage in its entirety. Maybe it’s my own straddling of a generation gap between the younger generation and the rest, but the whole coverage seemed like it was tailored for someone with an attention span of a goldfish, filled with strange moments and sometimes little relevance to the main ceremony.
Author: Steve, Southgate store
For a full list of nominees and winners, see below:
British Male Solo Artist
WINNER: David Bowie
Craig David
Kano
Michael Kiwanuka
Skepta
British Female Solo Artist
WINNER: Emeli Sande
Anohni
Ellie Goulding
Lianne La Havas
Nao
British Group
WINNER: The 1975
Bastille
Biffy Clyro
Little Mix
Radiohead
International Group
WINNER: A Tribe Called Quest
Drake & Future
Kings of Leon
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Twenty One Pilots
British Breakthrough Act
WINNER: Rag’N’Bone Man
Anne-Marie
Blossoms
Skepta
Stormzy
Critics’ Choice Award
WINNER: Rag’n’Bone Man
Anne-Marie
Dua Lipa
MasterCard British Album of the Year
WINNER: Blackstar – David Bowie
I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It – The 1975
Made in the Manor – Kano
Love & Hate – Michael Kiwanuka
Konnichiwa – Skepta
British Single of the Year
WINNER: “Shout Out to My Ex” – Little Mix
“Faded” – Alan Walker
“Dancing On My Own” – Calum Scott
“This Is What You Came For” – Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna
“Rockabye” – Clean Bandit featuring Sean Paul & Anne-Marie
“Hymn for the Weekend” – Coldplay
“Say You Won’t Let Go” – James Arthur
“Fast Car” – Jonas Blue featuring Dakota
“Girls Like” – Tinie Tempah featuring Zara Larsson
“Pillowtalk” – ZAYN
International Male Solo Artist
WINNER: Drake
Bon Iver
Bruno Mars
Leonard Cohen
The Weeknd
International Female Solo Artist
WINNER: Beyonce
Christine and the Queens
Rihanna
Sia
Solange
British Artist Video
WINNER: “History” – One Direction
“Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” – Adele
“This Is What You Came For” – Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna
“Rockabye” – Clean Bandit featuring Sean Paul & Anne-Marie
“Hymn to the Weekend” – Coldplay
“Say You Won’t Let Go” – James Arthur
“Fast Car” – Jonas Blue featuring Dakota
“Hair” – Little Mix featuring Sean Paul
“Girls Like” – Tinie Tempah featuring Zara Larsson
“Pillowtalk” – ZAYN
