key events
Laura Snapes
Well, the new drinking game: every time the host does another alcoholic prank (“prank”), take a sip of Horlicks and hopefully you’ll be drunk before the night is over.
Laura Snapes
We’re back to the terrible drinking “jokes” that were a mainstay of the Mo Gilligan era. Will Kylie Minogue follow Australian ‘shoe’ tradition and drink out of her shoes? ……Yes she is. Suffice it to say that high heels won’t do.
Oh man, I can’t wait for “American Superstar” Tate McRae after halftime (she’s Canadian). Maya Jama can probably play fast and accurate on more than one level.
International Artist: SZA
Laura Snapes
It’s hard for Brits to attract international pop stars, and there’s almost no one in the category – only Asake, Caroline Polachek, CMAT and Kylie Minogue appear to have emerged from the nominations – and the same goes for winner SZA, who’s in this category Having done well this year thanks to her fantastic second album SOS, released in December 2022, she will do the same in 2023 and appear tonight only in video form.
“I’m so grateful for this honour, for the influence you have had on my music, I heard you were at my favorite venue the O2… I should be back soon!”
Mabel Banfield-Nwachi
I was on the floor, surrounded by celebrities, and everyone was wearing black leather – which seems to be the look of the year. Men wore a lot of leather pants. All the former Love Island residents love Calvin and Ellie, and that’s saying a lot.
Laura Snapes
The Saturday night primetime show from ITV and the UK music industry is popular on Twitter. The only way to liven it up: Kate Middleton showing up on Jungle’s show.
Alternative/Rock Performance: Bring Me the Horizon
Laura Snapes
The Sheffield band, who are often severely overlooked at the Brits and Mercury Awards, have won an all-male award in a rare mainstream act in the UK metal scene. This is their first ever Brit Awards, although they performed live with Ed Sheeran a few years ago. I’m here to watch a cutaway of extremely bored-looking young dads who should be winning this game. But here’s the dirty talk from BMTH, which caused a good portion of it to be deleted.
Ollie Sykes: “I don’t know what to say because we didn’t think we were going to win this game at all. Cheers to the British, they made the voting system so complicated that only us fans would be angry, thanks our fans [sweary sweary swearing] “It’s crazy. Cheers to our management, family and all that. I won’t say ‘owt eklse’, thank you very much, cheers. Reyt is good.”
Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding performance review
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
The UK may be a stingy, tight-lipped, extremely stingy island – but there are some things that make me wave the Union Jack like I’m the admin of a Facebook page about Spitfire maintenance, and our love of dance music is one of them one.Not just rap, not just indie rock, not just Dua Lipa Very hard working, commercial dance yes Our national pop, and the way we rallied around Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s Miracle, keeping it at No. 1 for eight weeks, had me staring wistfully at the white cliffs of Dover. Harris basically spliced the trance classic “Tell It” into something that inspired my millennial nostalgia. “To My Heart”, “Castle in the Sky” and “Seven Days a Week”, Goulding’s ethereal spirit makes her the perfect trance singer. But you can’t achieve this status through nostalgia alone: this is copper-bottomed songwriting.
Ellie Goulding maintains that ethereal tone throughout, rarely employing that rough sandpaper that sets her voice apart from the rest of her peers – and, of course, Calvin uninterestingly prods some of what might be inserted as well The device may not be plugged in. The show started to feel a bit in the middle and he gave it the full Sundissential treatment, pulling out a hard trance breakdown from the Hardwell mix, with Ellie and her backup dancers bouncing around like they were a bunch of kids who just opened the toilet in Liz Music festivals are on fire. The atmosphere is restored!
R&B Artist: Raye
Laura Snapes
Two items down! This was voted on by the public via Instagram. It’s a new independent genre category after musicians and fans complained last year about R&B being combined with pop: one of the musicians, Mahalia, was nominated this year.It can be said Raye Much more than what R&B has done – and if we’re talking about genre purists, it’s great to see Cleo Sol win this – but I don’t begrudge her at all. “What!” she mouthed as the camera turned to her.
“Hi! Look, I just want to say that when I was about 16, 15, I wanted to be an R&B artist, that’s what I’m saying. I think it’s a lie that R&B doesn’t sell in the UK , so I need to learn how to make different types of music. I know this is a bit fishy, but I would say R&B is very important and there are a lot of R&B artists in the UK eating it up. I want to give a shout out to Mahalia, who is running for this award, Cleo Sol , who is perfect, Sault. That’s really a lot – thank you.”
More shade please!
Laura Snapes
I’m going to pass on the smelling salts to Ben on this one, because I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him enjoy a song so much in the six-plus years we’ve been working together. I find Ellie Goulding’s voice a bit like opening a bag of powdered sugar, accidentally inhaling a bit, and choking.
Group of the Year: Jungle
Laura Snapes
Billie Joe Armstrong said: “There’s some really great bands coming out of the UK. But… Jungle? Really? Young Fathers deserve it with the fantastic,… Absurdist sounds come to blast this band,” Our second place album of the year – they looked confused at the table – but instead it belonged to the Jungle, these tepid white soul imitation artists whose greatest contribution to British music was the soundtrack to many a sports montage.
It was the first time they had been nominated for and won a BRIT Award, and they thanked their team and family in an emotional acceptance speech. It was unforgettable in every way.
Song of the Year: Raye – Escapism ft 070 Shake
Laura Snapes
One knock down and five possible gongs left! Raye She won her first award of the night for “Escapism,” a song she claims was left gathering dust in a filing cabinet when her former label, Polydor, refused to release it. To fool them even more: Raye is on her own as a solo artist, with the song “UK No 1” being the best-selling song by a British female artist in 2023 and going platinum multiple times around the world. She was barefoot and jumping up and down to “Glee.”
“Ah! What! Thank God, like wow! I’m shaking. I don’t… I really don’t know what to say right now, but thank you, thank you to my team. Wow, I’ve always dreamed of saying ‘thank me’ team”. Thank you to my publishing company, they are called HR, they are a small imprint in the US, no one will accept my songs except J [Erving]”Thank you for believing in this music. Thank you Mike Sabbath, who collaborated on this song on my entire album. He created the beat and I heard it in the car. I can’t believe this is happening, ahh! “
Like when she said she always dreamed of saying “thank you my team”! Elegant barb.
Plus, during the host’s prologue, we heard the first political statement of the night from the stars of ITV’s Mr Bates and the Post Office: “No matter what the government says, they’re not paying the postmaster general.”
Dua Lipa opens show — and her performance is reviewed
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
It’s not accurate to say that Dua Lipa is entering her flop era – the first single from her upcoming album Houdini and Training Season is currently among the top 20 most played songs in the world on Spotify. But there’s something dizzying about the way they’re created – compelling in a cold and determined way, rather than effortlessly natural – that makes them hard to love, some mean media types (not me yet!) wonder Will she ever make it to the other side of the mountain of fame?
Well, that show should quiet them down a bit. Wearing her second leather outfit of the night, she kicked off her training season, and while I found the song to be quite dull and boring indeed when it was recorded, Lipa elevates the strong vocal performance on this B-grade material in true style – listen She absolutely must have the sexual and spiritual connection she sings about, and her voice doesn’t waver even while strutting around a group of acrobatic dancers. This is the kind of vocal training you can only do at a boot camp. Peak pop stars can tough it out—and that can create a strong start.
Laura Snapes
This year we welcome a new group of presenters, Clara Amfo, Maya Jama and Ronan Kemp. The Brits are all practical presenters, and seem to be pursuing the “despicable professionalism” this year after the chaotic “comedy” of Mo Gilligan’s “Mo Gilligan’s” the past two years. Or… 70s variety shows, with A Love Island “kissing scene”? What! (I’ve never watched Love Island and have no idea what’s going on here.)
