East London was brought alive when the BRIT Awards returned on Tuesday evening.
For 2022, the music ceremony had a new host for the night. Comedian Mo Gilligan picked up the presenting duties, replacing Jack Whitehall.
The night opened with a performance by Ed Sheeran and Bring Me the Horizon of Ed’s song ‘Bad Habits’.
The first award of the night was Best British Song which went to Adele for her song ‘Easy on Me’. She received three Brits in total including Album and Artist of the year.
Best International Song went to Olivia Rodrigo for her song ‘Good 4 U’. She made her first-ever live performance at the 2021 BRITs with ‘Drivers Licence’.
New On The Block
Best New Artist was awarded to Little Simz. She took her mum up on stage with her to collect her Brit and in her acceptance speech, she said: “Mum look what you done!” Little Simz also performed her songs ‘Introvert’ and ‘Woman Live’.
Rapper Dave won the award for Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act beating Little Simz and AJ Tracey.
Other performances of the night included Adele, which was her first performance since cancelling her Las Vegas tour dates due to ‘Covid issues’ and ‘delivery delays’. Anne-Marie sang with KSI and made an unfortunate blunder by falling down the stairs on stage whilst performing her song ‘Kiss My Uh Oh’.
Brits Rising Star award went to 22-year-old singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone, who released her EP ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’ back in November 2021. Holly performed her new single ‘London Is Lonely’ after receiving the award.
Newcastle’s Finest
Newcastle’s Sam Fender won Best Alternative/Rock artist. The award was voted by fans on the social media app TikTok, beating the likes of Coldplay, Wolf Alice and Glass Animals. Sam also performed his song ‘Seventeen Going Under’ from his debut album.
There were no gender-based categories for the first time in BRITs history, as pointed out by Adele when she collected the award for British Artist of the Year. They scrapped best solo male and female along with international female and male solo artist, changing them to International Artist and British Artist of the Year. The reason for this is to make sure the awards ceremony is as inclusive as possible.
International Artist of the Year was awarded to Billie Eilish, who unfortunately was not present at the ceremony due to being on tour in America.
British Group went to Wolf Alice, who claimed their first BRIT win.
Ed Continues To Win
Ed Sheeran was nominated for four awards, winning one, Songwriter of the Year. He dedicated the award to his wife Cherry, saying thanks to her for dropping everything and going to a secluded studio to write song after song. Ed performed his single ‘The Joker and The Queen’ which will be released on Friday as a duet with Taylor Swift.
Dave closed the show with his song ‘In the Fire’ bringing out artists Fredo, Ghetts, Giggs and Meekz during the performance and a gospel choir.
Dave ended the show in spectacular fashion with a performance of his song ‘In The Fire’. Be brought out artists Fredo, Ghetts, Giggs and Meekz plus a gospel choir. Playing on to the song title, Dave finished the piece with a solo on a guitar which was shooting out real fire.
The 2022 BRITS was certainly a celebration of British music from the past year, what will we have in store for the rest of the year?
Main picture credit – The BRITs
