Brit Awards 2009

It's only the most prestigious British Music Award... no biggie.
So, there I was sitting on my chair, pen in hand and brain in full gear- ready for some musical celebration and boy, did they receive. Although it may not always have been in their favour, unfortunately The Ting Tings and Estelle did just not replicate The Klaxons and Rihanna of last year, condolences to fans of both.
U2 started the show with a heavily made up Bono saying it was good to be back, and believe us Bono, you never left. "Get on your Boots," is great promotion for their new LP, "No Line on the Horizon," due next month. After two rather turbulent years of presenting, a somewhat unconventional tradition of the BRIT's, with Russell Brand and the 300 phone complaints plus The Osborunes last year, producers felt they needed to be safe this year, enter James Cordon, Matthew Horne and Kylie. A clearly scripted evening and I take my hat off to all of them, they gave us what we expected, clean cut happiness. Kylie looked dazzling in her many costume changes and the harmless flirting with Matthew, added to the clean family fun!
Duffy left this evening with three awards, Best Female, British Breakthrough and British Album- coming from someone who is just not a fan of her, each of her speeches were dignified and she was clearly happy to win. Other big winners of the evening were Kings of Leon winning International Group and International Album, looking ever so composed for the first thanking but clearly they started drinking too early before the second... Shame The Killers didn't completely beat them!
International Male went to Kanye West, deservidly, unfortunatly he wasn't at the event. So you can complain when you don't win, but when you do, don't come to the event, the thinking someone? Internation Female went to the beautiful Katy Perry who looked as though she was going to throw up on stage (obviously making it clear that she was ill)! Other winners of the evening included the surprising win of Elbow for Best British Group, just weeks after winning Mercury Music Album of the Year (it seems years of hard grafting do the job), Paul Weller for British Male (although his main competition was Will Young, the industry thought they would stay with tradition, shame really) and the other surprise was Iron Maiden for Best Live Act.
Best British Single went to Girls Aloud for The Promise, what were people thinking? Sorry but against the likes of Coldplay??? It was all the more dignifed as Sarah Harding screamed, "I've wet myself on stage."
Now, Coldplay? Nominations 4 Wins 0, this is a catastrophe! I mean had the Brit Academy really thought that others deserved to win over Coldplay? With a release like last years 'Viva La Vida', they deserved to win at least Best Album... (Duffy, tut tut)!
And Outstanding Contribution to Music? No other than Pet Shop Boys, the best British electronic band of the last 20 years. They performed a fantastic medley of their greatest hits including 'West End Girls', 'What Have I Done to Deserve This?' and their new single, 'Love etc.'. Guest vocalists included Lady GaGa and Brandon Flowers of The Killers who did brilliantly with what they were given.
So what have we learnt after this year? Not only are the movie awards becoming more and more obvious, it has finally happened to music. Where was the wins for Adele, The Killers or Coldplay? Surely missed out to winners like Girls Aloud and Duffy? Yes, people are right when they said music is getting stronger and last year was no different, shame the Brit's didn't acknowlege that!

Ollie///Beauty is music on a wonderful night!

The Brit Awards 2008 in association with MasterCard

The lights were dimmed, the phone was off the hook and the surround sound was on, what was this in aid of?

The Brit’s, of course and what a way to start the night, the most prestigious night in British music sees the crème de la crème of the music scene awarded for their efforts in the past year, and what a year it had been. There were so many new bands to choose from, with reunions and with collaborations. 2007 saw a new record broke in the form of Umbrella by Rihanna but has she managed to break into the hearts of the UK?

The night started with Mika exploding onto the stage. Now whatever anyone’s opinion and I am one to speak out about this man, his rendition of Love Today was a brilliant way to start and only bettered with the addition of Beth Ditto for a duet of Standing in the Way of Control. Their contrasting voices with Mika surprisingly taking the higher vocals and Beth, the lower.
Then it was time to start the presentation, people were somewhat blown away by the selection of presenters for this years show after the controversy of last year’s, Russell Brand debacle. But I was looking forward to seeing the Osborne’s on stage and what a job they did. No one knew what they had planned, was Ozzy going to come on with a bat’s head? Was Sharon going to swear way before the 9o’clock watershed? Not only did their children, Kelly and Jack, join the couple but also they were surprisingly behaved. The question on my lips though, was Sharon drunk? I have never seen her smile so much and she bounced along the stage, it was a surprise the rest of her family kept up with her.

The awards started and with the orders shook up, they started with the Best Live Act, previously won over the past two years by Muse, the award this year went to Take That, who also went away with Best British Single for the Mark Owen lead, ‘Shine’. On their first time up on stage it almost seemed as if Jason Orange had stage shock, as he stood there shaking, speaking for the longest time and thanking people who had already been thanked. But it’s Take That and they proved that they are still one of the best in British music.

The event was only made better by proving the great diversity there is between the different genres of music and yet they all took away awards. With pop making a return in the form of Take That, indie showing they are still on top with two awards (Best British Group & Best British Album) going to the Arctic Monkey’s and rock showing there is still a place in our hearts as the Foo Fighters won both Best International Group and Best International Album.
But what is the Brit’s without the performances? Well tonight was nothing short of brilliant from thrilling performances of Ruby by The Kaiser Chiefs where the stage emulated their music video with specially build towers rising out of the stage throughout the song until they were covered. Kylie Minogue continued her massive comeback with her rendition of her new song, Wow, which although may not be her strongest song, is guaranteed to stay in your head from hours afterwards. Did anyone notice how much she looked like Debbie Harry in her Blondie days during the performance?

The two biggest performances of the evening had to go to Rihanna and the Klaxons singing Umbrella/Golden Skans, which may not sound like the right combination but put together, they really pulled it off. The stage for the performance was amazing, holding all the classiness that Rihanna tries to show in her music mixed with the rave atmosphere of the Klaxons, the flashing greens and blacks into the audience, the strobe lighting and the wonderful pillar which Rihanna started on until it lowered to stage level showed that the thought and design that goes into the awards really can make all the difference. The other big performance of the evening was the Mark Ronson medley, after winning the Best British Male (the first non-singing winner) and saying that he has never felt so male and never felt so British he blew the audience away with a collection of his biggest hits. First Adele joined him (she won the Critics’ Choice Award, the very first time this award has been seen) to sing God Put A Smile followed by Daniel Merriweather to sing his hit, Stop Me and ended with Amy Winehouse and their hit of last year, Valerie. She was let out of rehab to come to the event and she looks brilliant, she has gained some weight, has better colour skin and stood up strong and looked as if she was starting to overcome her troubles.

Other winners of the night were Kate Nash for Best British Female, Mika won Best Breakthrough, International Male was Kanye West and Kylie Minogue collected International Female. A performance from Amy Winehouse singing, Love is a Losing Game and Leona Lewis with Bleeding Love were just some of the other pieces in this amazing night. Leona Lewis stood out, only two years ago, she was a normal girl and then she won The X Factor and two years later, she had the biggest selling album of 2007, selling two million copies in just six weeks. In her purple gown surrounded by about a dozen dancers, she amazed the audience with Bleeding Love and once again showed early signs of a singer like Whitney Houston.

The awards were presented by an array of people from Sir Ian McKellen to Chris Moyles to Alan Carr (who was drunk!) and each bought something special to the show. Outstanding Contribution to Music, the last award of the night, was presented to Sir Paul McCartney for all his work from The Beatles to The Wings to his solo career and all the amazing things he has done for the music industry.

The evening finished with a medley of hits from McCartney, he started with the recent feel-good single; Dance Tonight followed by Live and Let Die (with amazing pyrotechnics) and to end the two-hour event, he sung The Beatles hit, Hey Jude!

Overall, an impressive night that could only have been made better if the artists I wanted to win had. But with only 12 more months to go until The Brit Awards 2009, it’s only a matter of exposing new talent and some really great music planned for the rest of this year.