The Brit Awards this year are destined for the history books, with pop star Raye sweeping six trophies, including Best Artist, Best Song, and Album of the Year.
“Will it ever get better than this?” asked the overwhelmed 26-year-old behind the stage. “What’s even happening?”
But there’s always more to the Brits than the awards themselves.
On a night of tears, beers, and celebration of careers, who were the real winners and losers at the O2 Arena?
Six Brit Awards in one night is astonishing.
David Bowie only snagged six in his entire career. George Michael got three. Adele, the greatest British artist of the last decade, has a dozen.
In other words, Raye is officially half of Adele.
Raye’s staggering haul, record-breaking in nature, is even sweeter because just two years ago, she described herself as a “failure” in the music industry.
Hindered from releasing music by a record label that didn’t believe in her, she had to fight for her freedom, finally going independent in 2022.
Since then, her career has exploded: “Escapism,” a song written in the depths of despair and then rejected by her label, became a monstrous hit. A UK number one, it was the best-selling song by a British female artist in 2023 and went platinum worldwide.
Tonight, she won Song of the Year, proving that success truly is the best revenge.
“This has been the best night of my life,” Raye told us afterward. “And luckily they captured it all on camera so I can watch it back.”x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x
More tears shed: Raye
Last year, an American pop artist named Taylor Swift had a rather successful year. She sold some albums, played some shows, dated a footballer. You might have heard about it.
So it was a shock to Swifties when actress Joanne Froggatt opened the envelope marked “best international artist” and read out someone else’s name: R&B singer born in Missouri, SZA.
But the shock was short-lived. This wasn’t a David vs. Goliath moment.
SZA’s second album, “SOS,” is a modern masterpiece: a 23-track opus where she dissects love from every conceivable angle, deftly jumping between genres and delivering beautiful, jazzy vocal runs that blur the lines between rap and singing.
If anything, the Brits did a better job here than this year’s Grammys, where SZA had more nominations than any other artist but was shut out of all the major categories.
Most impractical outfit: Charli XCX
Pop’s leading nominee, Charli XCX, showed up in a hard resin corset she had to hold against her abdomen all night, just in case she pulled a Janet Jackson and flashed the audience.
The custom Marni outfit also made eating the Brits dinner quite impractical.
“When I have to sit down, it rides up to my throat,” she said. “Not great.”
But all the discomfort was worth it.
“This is the part that matters to me. The look. Does the rest really matter? I don’t know. Whatever.”
Best-kept secret: Joe Keery
Here’s something you might not know: Joe Keery, also known as Steve Harrington from Stranger Things, currently has a single in the UK top ten.
“End Of The Beginning,” a dreamy indie-rock song he recorded under the pseudonym Djo two years ago, has suddenly gone viral, earning him a spot at the Brit Awards.
But while he was happy to talk about his music, he was tight-lipped about the upcoming (and final) season of Stranger Things.
“I’ve seen the scripts, and that’s all I can tell you,” he said. “I’ve got some papers with words written on them that may or may not involve someone I know.
“Nothing more, I can’t say.”
Most daring backside: CMAT
Since Jarvis Cocker showed his backside to Michael Jackson, the Brits haven’t seen such depravity.
While Clara Amfo introduced a performance by Rema, Dublin-born singer CMAT snuck into the background of her shot and turned around to reveal what you could euphemistically call her “Irish craic.”
Best insult: Roman Kemp
American punk rockers Green Day attended the Brits to present the award for Best British Group.
But show co-host Roman Kemp managed to sneak in a subtle dig at the band as they took the stage.
“To present our next award for Best British Group are two bona fide rock gods,” he said. “They’ve sold over 75 million records and released 14 albums… They’re like the American Busted.”
If only the rest of the dull, lifeless script had been as eager to ruffle feathers.
The brightest pop legend: Kylie Minogue
Kylie won the Brits’ Global Icon Award, a lifetime achievement honor without the cruel subtext of “your career has seen better days.”
She celebrated with a medley of hits including “Padam Padam,” “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head,” “Love At First Sight,” and “All The Lovers.”
Appearing on a high pedestal above the audience, she went through four wardrobe changes, serving moves like a choreographic vending machine.
Best of all, she seemed to be having the time of her life, running down the catwalk and high-fiving her dancers with a beaming smile.
Like her performance at Glastonbury five years ago, it was a reminder of why she’s so beloved.
Other artists want you to see the effort, the sweat, and the tears. Kylie just shines.
Biggest hat: Ella Henderson
Confusing the Brit Awards with Royal Ascot, Ella Henderson showed up in a voluminous hat, which she then insisted on wearing throughout the ceremony.
And what about the people behind her?
“I’ll turn around and tell them what’s going on,” she laughed.
Less likely to obey Newton’s law of universal gravity: Dua Lipa
It’s uncharitable to bring it up again, but Dua Lipa’s first performance at the Brits in 2018 was so patchy it spawned the meme “go girl, give us nothing.”
Since then, she’s described the scrutiny as “really painful.”
“I was like, ‘finally, I’m doing something I love to do, and I’m getting shut down, like I just can’t do anything right,'” she told Rolling Stone.
Dua has been proving the naysayers wrong since then, but her opening performance at this year’s Brits was one of the best: dressed in a cropped leather jacket and shorts, she walked down the catwalk towards a revolving tower of male dancers.
She was then hoisted into the air by two acrobats, her voice steady, before landing back on stage to finish the song.
On a night filled with flashy and creative performances (special mention to Rema, Tate McRae, and Becky Hill), this one stood out.
The wet fish award for lack of enthusiasm: The Brits audience
Did someone put sedatives in the champagne? The atmosphere at the O2 was dead as a nail hammered into a dodo and buried in a concrete bunker.
The TV audience wasn’t impressed.
“There’s something very off-putting about this year’s #BritAwards,” wrote Keiran Maddison on X. “The vibes are so dead, and the crowd is so lifeless.”
“Is there anyone in the audience?” asked Hayley Davies.
“Bring back the days when everyone was well oiled and were rock stars,” concluded Ally Fothers.
Most ruinous drink: Kylie’s champagne shoe
The Brits writers were oddly obsessed with drinking jokes, almost as if they were trying to make a Brandon Block moment happen.
Roman Kemp even challenged Calvin Harris (who doesn’t drink alcohol) to take a shot, before revealing a bottle labeled as “Harry Styles’ bathwater.”
“I call it the Saltburn,” he winked, referencing a scene from a movie I won’t describe if you haven’t seen it.
Later, Kemp persuaded Kylie Minogue to do a “shoey,” in Australian tradition of drinking beer from a shoe.
“Do I do this?” she asked the crowd, who howled in approval.
Kemp then poured some of Kylie’s distinctive pink bubbly into a high heel, before they both took a generous sip.
Co-host Maya Jama then informed the audience that Kemp had athlete’s foot, which would have been a good joke if they had been drinking from one of his shoes.
(UPDATE: The BBC has been informed the drink came from an unmarked can, therefore could have contained any number of beverages, including Vimto).
Most realistic winners: Bring Me The Horizon
Twenty years after forming, Bring Me The Horizon won their first Brit Award, for Best Rock/Alternative Act.
Onstage, frontman Oli Sykes suggested their victory over bands like Blur, Young Fathers, and The Rolling Stones was down to a technicality.
“Cheers to the Brits for making the voting system so complicated that only our fans could be bothered,” he joked.
Backstage, the band was equally laid-back. When asked what they planned to do with their trophy, Sykes replied: “I think it’ll make a very useful doorstop for the coming summer months.
“With global warming and all, we’ll need to keep the door open to let some of that heat out.”
Best grandmother: Agatha Dawson
Raye’s last award of the night was the biggest: Album of the Year, for her debut album “My 21st Century Blues,” which navigates between genres.
For her final podium speech, she brought her grandmother, Agatha, for moral support.
“She raised me,” explained the singer (whose middle name is Agatha) backstage.
“My parents worked full-time, so she came over from Ghana to help raise us, lived with us, took us to and from school, and poured so much love and heart into us.”
