- Words Notion Staff
We take a look at the highlights from the biggest night in British music.
Another BRIT Awards in the bag, full of killer performances, surprise video appearances and some controversial jokes from Jack Whitehall about Shawn Mendes’ “suspicious package”. The 1975 took away the biggest award of the night, the Mastercard Album of the Award for their latest release, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Elsewhere, Jorja Smith picked up the award for Best British Female and George Ezra collected the award in the male category.
Every year at the BRITs, there’s that one moment that stands out as being particularly memorable. Here, we pick apart all the best bits and offer some suggestions for this years ultimate highlight.
The 1975 Acceptance Speech
In times when our economic and political climates are at their most rife, award shows are often used as an opportunity for important people to use their platform to speak about social injustices. While most others stayed schtum when it came to calling out the imbalance between men and women in music, Matt Healy used his win for Best British Group to offer up some wise words about toxic masculinity from music journalist Laura Snapes. It was undeniably one of the most powerful and poignant speeches of the night, and an important topic of conversation for this years BRITs. Taking the stage he pulled out a small sheet of paper and said “Laura Snapes said this and thought that we should, um, really think about it”
“In music, male misogynist acts are examined for nuance, and defended as traits of difficult artists, whilst women, and those who call them out, are treated as hysterics who don’t understand art.”
The Carters Appearance
It’s frustrating that almost every year, the winners in the International categories are never present. Even when Shawn Mendes is gracing us with his presence, he’s overlooked for a win. But, despite the absences of every single International winner, we did have some VT footage so we could at least feel as though we were in the same room as Queen Yonce. They gave an impassioned thank you for the award while holding the win and obvs apologies for not being present, but the best part of their VT was the picture that they were stood in front of. Mimicking their iconic image in front of the Mona Lisa from the “Apeshit” video, they stood in front of a painting where Mona Lisa had been replaced by her Royal Highness, Meghan Markle. We stan.
Jack Whitehall’s Presenting
After last years awkward encounter with Cheryl and Liam Payne, it was obvious that Jack Whitehall would be back on form with another toe-curling presenting skit. This year he was back with his ‘no holds barred’ approach. When sitting with Little Mix, he referred to Piers Morgans “cleavage and four chins”, he made a remark about Prince Phillip’s recent road traffic accident, he made light of Liam Payne’s alleged relationship with Naomi Campbell and even had an awkward chat with Shawn Mendes about his “suspicious package” following his recent Calvin Klein campaign. Not bad offending for a two hour job!
Dua Lipa. Period.
Ugh. Need we say more. The performance. The endless outfit changes. The acceptance speech (“This is pretty cool”) and the interview with her dad. Perfection, tbh!
The Little Mix Performance
It’s sometimes hard to believe that Little Mix were just a group of girls formed on The X Factor. Their star power has exceeded even some of the most organically formed groups. They are, as it stands, a British powerhouse when it comes to pop music. They’re also a well-oiled machine when it comes to throwing a damn good show, so it comes as no surprise that their “Woman Like Me” performance was one of the most energetic of the night. While Queen Barbie couldn’t be in attendance tonight, luckily Ms Banks was on hand to fill-in, offering up her own spin on the Ms Minaj’s epic verse. With a heist-themed narrative, it was packed with pyrotechnics, pink lyrca and some sickening dance moves.
The Greatest Showman
OK, so while we have to acknowledge that the opening showcase from Hugh Jackman was a little strange, there’s no denying that it was a moment. I mean, how often do you get to see the Wolverine on stage with about 100 acrobats belting out a jam from one of this years biggest movies. It was a true spectacle, you know, the kind that sends you into a weird trance and you don’t really have a clue what is going on… Anyway, it was major and we love Hugh Jackman.
