The Arctic Monkeys kicked off the 34th annual BRIT Awards at The O2 tonight with a blistering performance of ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ laying the foundations for one of the most spectacular BRITs ever. The band literally set the presenters podium on fire with a massive ‘AM’ overlooked by the immense set design for the night, including a 50 foot BRIT Award, that was finally revealed to the world.
There was a surprise performance from Beyoncé who brought the house down with the her first ever live performance of ‘XO’ after months of speculation as to whether she would be the final act to be confirmed. The USA was in full effect tonight with Katy Perry treating VIP guests to a futuristic egyptian laser light show riding in on a chariot like the Queen of Sheba while Bruno Mars put in an effortless performance of ‘Treasure’.
Noel Gallagher presented the award for the Best British Male Solo Artist, which went to the legendary David Bowie again after winning it exactly thirty years ago in 1984. Although he was unable to attend the awards tonight in person Kate Moss picked up the award on his behalf in spectacular style dressed as Ziggy-era Bowie.
Arctic Monkeys set a record for winning the British Group and MasterCard Album Of The Year in the same year for the third time (the last two being: 2007 and 2008). They beat the previous record holders, the Manic Street Preachers, who have won both awards in the same year twice (once in 1997 and again in 1999).
This year’s BRITs also featured the most collaborations on stage than ever before with dual winners Bastille (British Breakthrough) and Rudimental (British Single) who played their two biggest hits together ‘Pompeii’ and ‘Waiting All Night’ with Ella Eyre; Disclosure performing with Best International Female Solo Artist winner Lorde and Pharrell taking to the stage with Nile Rodgers to close the show for a mash-up of ‘Get Lucky’ Chic’s ‘Good Times’ into the recent No.1 global smash hit single ‘Happy’.
The boys dominated the haul of trophies won tonight taking home eleven of the thirteen Philip Treacy designed statues including: Bastille, Rudimental, Sam Smith, David Bowie, Daft Punk, One Direction and Arctic Monkeys. Ellie Goulding won Best British Female Solo Artist and Lorde won Best International Female Solo Artist.
Amongst all the excitement new ground was being broken by The BRIT Awards with YouTube streaming the show as live outside of the UK globally, a world first for an awards show of this stature. This year also included the introduction of the first ever live social voting mechanism for an award on a televised awards show. Viewers were able to cast their vote for the British Video Award as the show transmitted live tonight with One Direction finally being crowned the winners for their video ‘Best Song Ever’ (directed by Ben Winston). There were over two million Tweets about the social vote during the live broadcast.
Performances from tonight will be available to download after the show finishes with the profits going to Warchild for the next 30 days.
And The Winners Are….
Best British Male Solo Artist – David Bowie (presented by Noel Gallagher – collected by Kate Moss)
Best British Female Solo Artist – Ellie Goulding (Presented by Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL)
British Group – Arctic Monkeys (presented by Lily Allen)
British Breakthrough Act – Bastille (presented Fearne Cotton and Tinie Tempah)
Critics’ Choice – Sam Smith (Already presented by Tom Odell at BRITs launch)
British Global Success Award – One Direction (Presented by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley)
British Single – Rudimental featuring Ella Eyre ‘Waiting All Night’ (presented by Katy Perry)
MasterCard British Album of The Year – Arctic Monkeys ‘AM’ (presented by Emeli Sandé)
British Producer Of The Year – Flood (Mark Ellis) & Alan Moulder (presented previously at Producers Guild)
British Video Award – One Direction – Best Song Ever (Social Vote through Twitter on the night) (Presented by Jimmy Carr)
International Male Solo Artist – Bruno Mars (presented by Kylie Minogue and Pharrell Williams)
International Female Solo Artist – Lorde (presented by Nick Grimshaw)
International Group – Daft Punk (presented by Cesc Fabregas and Nicole Scherzinger)
