Adele reigns at BRITs, taking home 3 awards
London, Feb 8 (EFE).- This year’s BRIT Awards had a little of everything: The songs of Ed Sheeran, Little Simz’s rap, the alternative sound of San Fender and Wolf Alice and the almost forgotten rock of Liam Gallagher. There was also Disney girl Olivia Rodrigo.
And, to top it all off, three of the prestigious music awards went to Adele, who returned on Tuesday to the venue that catapulted her to fame to take home the best album, best song and best artist trophies.
The London singer is already the artist to have garnered the second-most BRITs in history with 12 of the awards on her shelf so far, ahead of the band Coldplay, which has nine, but still far behind the 18 Robbie Williams has won, 12 of them alone and five more when he was part of the group Take That.
Adele’s presence at the award ceremony was the big draw of the evening because of her long history at the awards – she was trained at London’s BRIT School – because of her popularity, her elegance and magnetism and because her voice is one of Britain’s treasures.
From the moment the 33-year-old Los Angeles resident came onto the stage, sat down and began to sing “I Drink Wine,” there were no doubts in the house but that she would win.
She garnered her first award for song of the year for her chart-topping single “Easy On Me” and was later honored as the year’s best artist and ultimately was handed the prize for best album for “30,” the big category of the evening.
“Thank-you so much. It’s always a pleasure to be here. I always love coming home. The BRITs are such such a big part of my career from way back when, when I was a little fetus,” Adele said in her acceptance remarks, dedicating one of her awards to her son.
The gala event was held at The O2 in London with 4,000 in attendance, far below the venue’s capacity of 15,000 due to local coronavirus gathering restrictions.
The evening was hosted by comedian Mo Gilligan, who took over for Jack Whitehall, who had been a classic presence at earlier editions of the awards. Calmer and less sarcastic than Whitehall, Gilligan sparkled, on a very non-political night, by firing a few digs at the British government.
Before the award presentations got under way, Gilligan joked that if British Prime Minister wanted to come enjoy the ceremony, he had a standing invitation, given how much he enjoys parties, playing on the current scandal surrounding the premier for attending several in-person cocktail parties with his staff despite the nationwide Covid lockdown.
Ed Sheeran – who won his seventh BRIT for best songwriter of the year, tying with Arctic Monkeys, U2 and One Direction – opened the ceremony along with Bring Me the Horizon by performing his well-known “Bad Habit,” while Little Simz, the rapper of the moment in the UK, fired up the crowd and won the award for best new artist.
His performance was one of the best received of the night, along with that of Sam Fender, the Newcastle icon who won for best alternative rock album.
Another rapper, Dave, was handed the award for best hip hop or grime act, and in his acceptance remarks he paid tribute to other artists in the genre “who have suffered for years and years … and broken down so many barriers in this industry.”
US teen phenom Olivia Rodrigo took home the award for best international song for “Good 4 U,” Billie Eilish was honored for best international artist, London alternative band Wolf Alice secured the group of the year award and the duo Silk Sonic was named international group of the year.
UK singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone was handed the rising star award, and Dua Lipa was named the best pop/R&B act, while Becky Hill got the best dance act prize.
Among the award presenters were actress Courteney Cox, F1 driver Lando Norris, the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, producer David Guetta, former Arsenal soccer star Ian Wright, Olympic medalist Mo Farah and actor Idris Elba.
Closing out one of the most varied BRIT awards galas were performances by Sheeran of “The Joker and the Queen” and by Dave of “In the Fire.”
EFE
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