Friday, February 18, 2011

On Tuesday, the 2011 BRIT Awards were presented from The O2 Arena in London, England. This is the first time that the awards ceremony has been hosted from this venue; previously, the regular location for the show was the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, which is also located in London.

The BRIT Awards, presented by the British Phonographic Industry, is an annual ceremony that awards music artists for excellence in music. The BRIT Awards started in 1980; this year’s event is the 31st BRIT Awards. ITV1 broadcasted this year’s programme from 2000-2200 UTC, with British actor and presenter James Corden hosting it.

The ITV1 programme contained performances from various artists, many of which had been nominated for BRIT Awards. The performers and the performances are displayed below but are not in chronological order. They are as follows:

  • Take That – Kidz
  • Adele – Someone Like You
  • Rihanna – Only Girl (In the World) / S&M / What’s My Name?
  • Mumford & Sons – Timshel
  • Plan B – She Said / Prayin’
  • Tinie Tempah, Eric Turner and Labrinth – Written in the Stars / Miami 2 Ibiza / Pass Out
  • Arcade Fire – Ready To Start
  • Cee Lo Green and Paloma Faith – Forget You

British rapper Tinie Tempah was nominated for most awards than any other artist, with ‘Best British Album’ and ‘Best British Male’ included amongst his four nominations. He was given two BRIT awards – one for ‘Best British Single’, which was Pass Out, and the second for ‘Best British Breakthrough Act’. Upon receiving what would turn out to be his first award of two, Tinie Tempah proclaimed: “I want to big up God and my family for sticking by me when times are hard.” Canadian indie rock group Arcade Fire were also successful in achieving two BRIT Awards, one for ‘Best International Group’ and the other for ‘Best International Album’; their album is entitled The Suburbs.

Dermot O’Leary presented an award to British pop group Take That for ‘Best British Group’, the first time the group have ever achieved such an award. While the group received the award, member Mark Owen looked at Robbie Williams, who had recently rejoined Take That, and said: “Can I say thanks for coming back mate. Appreciate it. It’s a real pleasure for the five of us to be up here.” The group had a second nomination for ‘Best British Album’ but were unsuccessful in winning the award.

Cee Lo Green, a member of the group Gnarls Barkley, received one BRIT Award for ‘Best International Male’. In his acceptance speech, he commented: “I’m so excited. Thank you so much for this honour. Such a pleasant surprise.” Cee Lo was also nominated for ‘Best International Album’ but failed to achieve the award.

Roger Daltrey, lead singer of English rock group The Who, humourously commented that “[i]t’s good to see the British music industry still has enough money for a good booze up” before giving the award for ‘Best British Album’ to Mumford & Sons for their album, entitled Sigh No More. Marcus Mumford, of the group, said that “[t]his is very bizarre, very strange. Thank you very much indeed. We are very honoured, very humbled.”

Mark Ronson and Ellie Goulding awarded the ‘Critics’ Choice’ to English singer-songwriter Jessie J. Backstage, Jessie J – who is currently at number one in the UK Singles Chart with her song Price Tag, featuring American rapper B.o.B – remarked that “[p]op stands for popular. I want to be a pop icon and take Britain across the world.”

Plan B, another British rapper, achieved the award for ‘Best British Male’. “There’s a lot of people I could be thanking right now, I wanna thank them all together,” he said during his acceptance speech. Having expressed thanks to various family members, friends, his record labels and the people he had worked with, he concluded his speech with the line: “Thank you, everybody. That’s all.”

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Earlier in February 2011, Markus Dravs was given the BRIT Award for ‘Best British Producer’ by Chris Martin, a member of the group Coldplay; Dravs is co-producing a fifth album for the group at present. Dravs was nominated for his work in relation to Arcade Fire album The Suburbs and Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More. “You could hear it in the lyrics and in the commitment in the demos,” he commented. “I really wanted to get involved and see if I could help make the record.”

During the BRIT Awards programme on Tuesday, Cheryl Cole presented the ‘Best International Female’, which was won by Rihanna. The Barbadian pop and R&B singer exclaimed during her acceptance speech: “Britain, I love you! This is so exciting. I want to thank everybody at my label, Mercury […] all my fans here. You guys are the best! I love you so much. This is…this is big. It doesn’t get much bigger than the BRITs, so I love you guys. Thank you so much. This means a lot. I’m the only girl in the world!”

The award for ‘Best International Breakthrough Act’ was given to Justin Bieber, a Canadian pop music / R&B singer. Upon accepting the award, Bieber commented: “I want to thank all my fans over here. You guys are amazing. I want to thank the label over here”. Laura Marling was subsequently awarded ‘Best British Female’. After being presented with the award by Boy George, Marling said: “Thank you. My name’s Laura and there you go, mum. That’s for you and thank you very much to Adam and Laura and everyone at Virgin. This is really weird.”

Shortly after the broadcast of the main programme, performances became available to purchase via iTunes. The The BRIT Trust will receive all of the downloads’ profits as a donation.

Below, all of the recipients of the awards on Tuesday night are available to view in a list, which is not presented in chronological order.

  • Best British Male – Plan B
  • Best British Female – Laura Marling
  • Best British Group – Take That
  • Best British Single – Tinie Tempah – Pass Out
  • Best British Album – Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
  • Best British Producer – Markus Dravs
  • Best British Breakthrough Act – Tinie Tempah
  • Best International Male – Cee Lo Green
  • Best International Female – Rihanna
  • Best International Group – Arcade Fire
  • Best International Album – Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
  • Best International Breakthrough Act – Justin Bieber
  • Critics’ Choice – Jessie J

Below is an image gallery displaying library photographs of some of the acts who appeared at the BRIT Awards 2011:

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Adele, who sang ‘Someone Like You’, performing in 2007. Image: Mpawsy.

Rihanna, who won ‘Best International Female’ and who sang ‘Only Girl (In the World) / S&M / What’s My Name?’, performing in 2010. Image: Vitorvicentevalente.

Mumford & Sons, who won ‘Best British Album’ for their album ‘Sigh No More’ and who sang ‘Timshel’, performing in 2009. Image: prusakolep.

Plan B, who won ‘Best British Male’ and who sang ‘She Said / Prayin”, performing in 2007. Image: Tony2Times.
Tinie Tempah, who achieved ‘Best British Single’ and ‘Best British Breakthrough Act’, as well as singing ‘Written in the Stars / Miami 2 Ibiza / Pass Out’ alongside Eric Turner and Labrinth, performing in 2010. Image: Göteborg & Co.

File:Rock en Seine 2007, The Arcade Fire.jpg

Arcade Fire, who won ‘Best International Album’ – for their album ‘The Suburbs’ – and ‘Best International Group’, as well as singing ‘Ready To Start’, performing in 2007. Image: Bertrand.

Cee Lo Green, who won ‘Best International Male’ and who sang ‘Forget You’ alongside Paloma Faith, performing in 2008. Image: Chris Hakkens.
Laura Marling, who won ‘Best British Female’, performing in 2007. Image: DearCatastropheWaitress.
Justin Bieber, who won ‘Best International Breakthrough Act’, at the 2010 White House Easter Egg Roll. Image: Daniel Ogren.
Jessie J, who was given the ‘Critics’ Choice’ award, performing in 2008. Image: Lancashire County Council.
Presenter James Corden, seen here at a BBC Radio Wales roadshow in 2008. Image: Ben Salter.

On Wednesday, the news emerged that the BRIT Awards 2011 gained approximately 4.8 million viewers, the smallest viewing figures the show has experienced for five years. The ratings of the ceremony were beaten by the last episode of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings in the series, broadcast on Channel 4 from 2100–2200 UTC on Tuesday; the viewing figures stood at approximately 6.5 million viewers. Holby City, broadcast on BBC One, also attracted more viewers than the BRIT Awards 2011. The programme, which was shown from 2000-2100 UTC, received approximately 5.8 million viewers.