Last night was one of the biggest nights of the year for British music, with the annual BRIT Awards taking place at London’s O2 Arena. The night was filled with spectacular performances, a heartbreaking tribute to the late David Bowie and of course the presentation of some awards. To spare you the agony of desperately scrolling through your Twitter feed to find out what happened, we wrote you a round-up of the noteworthy events from last night’s show. If you just want to read the full list of winners, scroll down to the end!
Half of One Direction showed up
Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson arrived looking dapper as ever in their suits. The lads handed out the award for British Female Solo Artist (won by Adele, of course) and went on to take home the award for British Artist Video themselves for Drag Me Down.
Adele took us on a rollercoaster of emotions
Being the absolute star of the show and taking home no less than four BRITs, Adele gave plenty of speeches throughout the night. Whether it was when she publicly supported Kesha, when she thanked her boyfriend and son whilst crying (“sorry for my ugly crying face”), or when she told the director to “shut her up” when Hello kept playing as she was about to start her second speech, Adele made us feel a lot.
James Bay won the award for British Male Solo Artist
It was only a year ago that James Bay won the Critic’s Choice Award at the BRITs, and to say he’s made the absolute most of those twelve months would be no lie. James looked truly astonished when Kylie Minogue called his name and proceeded to give the cutest winner’s speech ever.
Nobody knew where the camera was
We’re not entirely sure whether the set-up of the O2 just was that awkward or whether those barrels of booze on every table had something to do with it, but almost every winner was struggling to give their speech in the right direction. Which led to some hilarious moments, so we’re not complaining.
Coldplay won the award for British Group
Which is not that suprising, considering how huge Coldplay has been this year. Playing the Super Bowl Halftime show just a few weeks ago, starting a world tour next month and headlining Glastonbury this summer, winning British Group kinda made sense. Chris Martin didn’t forget to thank the other nominees in his speech and dedicated the award to refugees all over the world.
Alan Carr peed in a bottle on his way to the arena
Let’s file this under ‘things we didn’t really want to know’ and not talk about it any further.
Little Mix absolutely killed their performance of Black Magic
There’s not that much to say about it – go watch and see for yourself. Of course we already knew how amazing the Little Mix girls are, but to see them slaying it in front of the entire O2 Arena and millions of people watching from home made us a bit emotional and a lot proud.
Nick Grimshaw cannot pronounce the words ‘British Breakthrough’
Listeners of the Radio 1 Breakfast show already knew this: Grimmy struggled with these words quite a lot in the weeks leading up to the awards. Which is probably why he chose to let Cheryl Fernandez-Versini say the name of the award when the duo presented it to Catfish and the Bottlemen.
Annie Lennox, Gary Oldman and Lorde gave a stunningly beautiful tribute to David Bowie
Over the last month we’ve seen quite a lot of Bowie tributes, each one more beautiful than the other, but this one just might be our favourite so far. After heart-breaking speeches from Annie Lennox and Gary Oldman, Lorde walked onstage to perform Life on Mars with David’s band and it was absolutely incredible.
Drake showed up during Rihanna’s performance
Even though Drake didn’t take home the award for International Male Solo Artist (Justin Bieber did), that didn’t stop him from hopping on stage during Rihanna’s performance to perform Work with her.
Adele closed the show with When We Were Young
And absolutely smashed it, proving that her slip at the Grammy’s last week was due to technical difficulties and nothing else.
Here’s a full list of the winners:
British Male Solo Artist: James Bay (other nominees: Aphex Twin, Calvin Harris, Jamie XX, and Mark Ronson)
British Female Solo Artist: Adele (other nominees: Amy Winehouse, Florence + the Machine, Jess Glynne, and Laura Marling)
British Group: Coldplay (other nominees: One Direction, Blur, Foals, and Years & Years)
British Breakthrough Act: Catfish and the Bottlemen (other nominees: James Bay, Jess Glynne, Wolf Alice, and Years & Years)
British Producer of the Year: Charlie Andrew (other nominees: Mark Ronson, Mike Crossey, and Tom Dalgety)
British Single: Adele – Hello (other nominees: Calvin Harris & Disciples – How Deep is Your Love, Ed Sheeran & Rudimental – Bloodstream, Ellie Goulding – Love me Like you do, James Bay – Hold Back the River, Jess Glynne – Hold my Hand, Little Mix – Black Magic, Olly Murs ft. Demi Lovato – Up, Philip George – Wish you Were Mine, and Years & Years – King)
Mastercard British Album of the Year: Adele – 25 (other nominees: Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams, Florence + the Machine – How Big, How blue, How beautiful, James Bay – Chaos and the Calm, and Jamie XX – In Colour
British Artist Video: One Direction – Drag Me down (other nominees: Adele – Hello, Calvin Harris & Disciples – How Deep Is Your Love, Ed Sheeran – Photograph, Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do, Jessie J – Flashlight, Little Mix – Black Magic, Naughty boy ft. Beyonce & Arrow Benjamin – Runnin’ (Lose It All), Sam Smith – Writing’s On The Wall, and Years & Years – King
International Male Solo Artist: Justin Bieber (other nominees: Drake, Father John Misty, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd)
International Female Solo Artist: Björk (other nominees: Ariana Grande, Courtney Barnett, Lana del Rey, Meghan Trainor)
International Group: Tame Impala (other nominees: Alabama Shakes, Eagles of Death Metal, U2, Major Lazer)
Critic’s Choice Award: Jack Garratt (other nominees: Izzy Bizu, Frances)
Global success: Adele
Brits 2016 Icon Award: David Bowie
What did you think of last night’s show? Happy with the winners? Let us know in the comments below or over at @CelebMix!