Brit awards 2021: follow the ceremony live

Thanks for following along with us tonight. We’re left with a vintage crop of winners who show the Brits really can be a showcase of diverse and quality British pop, and a little lump in our throats at that NHS choir. Here are all your 2021 winners – hope someone’s chartered a boat down the Thames for all those key workers.

British female: Dua Lipa
British male: J Hus
British group: Little Mix
Breakthrough artist: Arlo Parks
British single: Harry Styles – Watermelon Sugar
British album: Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
International female: Billie Eilish
International male: The Weeknd
International group: Haim
Global icon: Taylor Swift
Rising star: Griff

I first heard Anywhere Away From Here when Rag N Bone Man did a bare-bones acoustic performance prior to release, and it was really powerful: that richly soulful voice and honest lyricism doesn’t need anything more than a piano or guitar. But with the many, many cooks that surround a major label release, bags of cheese and sugar were emptied into the production on the studio version, then toasted with vocal fry from Pink, who hit the song’s emotional beats with all the enthusiasm of a boxercise instructor having to teach in the rain thanks to the pandemic.

But set amid the context of the hopefully waning pandemic, amid an O2 Arena full of frontline heroes, and backed by the estimable key workers of the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, the song wrenches back its power – the extra choral heft gives it the grandeur it lacks in the recorded version, Rag’n’Bone Man’s voice is reliably stirring, and the shots panning across the singing NHS staff are truly moving.

A fitting climax to a show that repeatedly acknowledged the extraordinary work done by key workers during the pandemic – a task that the Brit awards, hosting pop at its most universal and shamelessly emotional, was so well placed to deliver on.

Tonight women took home 85% of the mixed-gender awards, a significant increase on any prior year of the 21st century when male artists have always won at least half of the mixed categories.

The final and biggest award of the night. Dua describes how the album “really has taught me so much confidence and strength … and has given me so much love and friendship” and then dedicates this award to Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, who died trying to rescue a woman who had fallen from London Bridge in April, and Joaquin Garcia, who also attempted to save the woman:

Jimi tragically did not survive … they knowingly put themselves in danger even though they were strangers to each other and to the woman. It would be fitting if they were recognised with a bravery award … you have touched the hearts of a whole nation and we will never forget you.

Future Nostalgia, then: when Brits reflect on the constants of our pandemic year, we will remember festering jars of sourdough slime, surrealist Rose Garden performances, a mania for clapping and the omnipresent and not in the least bit unwelcome throb of Dua’s disco opus. Many hands were wrung over the return of the genre and what it all meant. (Disco for dark times? Groundbreaking.) Frankly, who cared: in a year short on new sensations, it was all about how it felt, and Dua’s second album was fun, sexy and ruthlessly efficient. It’s almost scary to think about how annihilatingly big it might have been had it entered into a more normal world.

An unrecognisable, blonde Maisie Williams presents this award, naming Swift “one of the biggest names in the history of music … an inspiration to people all around the world”. In a VT, Selena Gomez says she’s “the same girl I met when I was 15 … generous, kind and cares so deeply about her fans.” Ed Sheeran says “fans are constantly getting a different side of her and it’s a very difficult thing to do time and time again”; Zoe Kravitz says “nobody works harder”; Annie Lennox calls her “exceptional and I truly love how she uses her platform to advocate for women and the LGBT community.”

And here she is, thrilled by the presence of Maisie Williams (“anyone who knows me at all knows that Game of Thrones is my life”) and Annie Lennox on the VT (“my soul left my body”).

“I wanna thank the Brits and anyone who decided that I would be up for this incredible honour. i’m really proud to be part of this musical community especially in a year where we needed music so much – and what we needed even more was the help and support of the NHS and the key workers that are here for us tonight. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us.”

She thanks her British fans and traces her live journey here – from Shepherds Bush Empire, the O2 and Wembley – and almost Glastonbury.

We all know what happened next – the world changed and I ended up putting out three albums instead. Making Folklore and Evermore was one of the most unique, cathartic, extraordinary experiences I’ve ever had.”

She thanks her collaborators from Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff and boyfriend Joe Alwyn (AKA William Bowery) to Bon Iver and Haim, then gets into the meat of her speech:

I wanna thank my friends and family, who know exactly who they are, whose opinion of me never changed whether my stock was up or down. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned it’s that you have to look around you every day and take note of the people who’ve always believed in you … Never take them for granted. There are so many incredible artists in this room tonight and a lot of people watching who have goals and ambitions for yourselves. I need you to hear me: there is no career path that comes free of negativity. If you’re met with resistance that probably means that you’re doing something new. If you’re experiencing turbulence or pressure that probably means you’re rising and there might be times where you put your whole heart and soul into something and it is met with cynicism or scepticism. You cannot let it crush you: you have to let it fuel you because we live in a world where anyone has the right to say anything about you that they want at any time but please remember that you have the right to prove them wrong. I love you all. Thank you so much for this beautiful honour, thank you to the Brits, this is amazing.

As she highlights, entire degree courses could be (and probably are) dedicated to the fluctuating public favour surrounding Taylor Alison Swift. Just four years ago, she was disparaged for being “calculating” for relishing the marketing side of being a pop star. Now, her gleefully vengeful plot to re-record her first six albums, devaluing the investment of the nemesis who bought them out from under her, has been widely celebrated. The general public! Who’d have ‘em! Anyway, Swift is the first ever woman to win this award (again, Brits, seriously?) and given her penchant for clues and code, doubtless the fans will already be scouring her speech for hints as to her next move. For my money, that look was extremely Red-era!

With an outfit referencing his Ghanaian heritage and a stage set fringed with news headlines, all of it designed by Louis Vuitton’s artistic director Virgil Abloh, Headie continues the recent tradition of rap artists making high-profile anti-authoritarian statements at the Brit awards – witness Dave calling Boris Johnson a “real racist”, or Stormzy asking: “where’s the money for Grenfell?” News reporter-style voices are heard criticising drill rap, perhaps a nod to Skepta, who used similar voices in a track following the criticised Kanye West performance of All Day at the 2015 Brits, that had middle England shifting uncomfortably on their sofas.

AJ Tracey appears in a light-up corridor and delivers his verse on point, and the two then trade freestyled bars in lieu of an absent Stormzy for verse three. “The government is saying eat out to help out but won’t help out Rashford when he’s feeding the youths” – another bit of Boris bashing and Rashford promotion to file alongside AJ’s similar verse in his track with Digga D Bringing It Back – and “two black Brits stand here at the Brits but still we ain’t seen as British”. It’s not quite as clear and emphatic as those aforementioned examples, but nevertheless they’re still using the Brits stage as a space to question racism and government decisions during the pandemic – unimaginably different, and better, than the purely lairy energy of the Brits in previous decades.

Then it’s a segue into brighter, wavier fare with Young T & Bugsey for Don’t Rush, with Headie even cracking one of his rare, slightly enigmatic smiles. A great showcase of all sides of his artistry.

That tease Harry Styles dressed as Dairy Milk’s Big Taste Triple Choc bar when my liveblogging snacks are long gone.

Jack Whitehall gets muted to call out the “corporate wankers” sitting in the swanky boxes above the key workers and says this is the moment ITV won’t ask him back for next year. At first I thought it was a planned gag, but then a bit of Headie One’s performance was muted and the screen showed the same “audio muted” graphic … Hmm.

Strong suit! Unusually clean-cut! Only person so far wearing a mask? Anyway: pretty straightforward acceptance speech (thanks: fans, friends, key workers) from – Dua’s Olivia Newton John tribute aside – the most musically traditional act in a category otherwise populated by (fairly anonymous) producer/singer hook-ups, and arguably more exciting rap collaborations. But who am I to argue with the BPI recognising Styles’s sunbaked, brassy, appropriately jubilant ode to oral sex and/or Richard Brautigan’s 1964 novel In Watermelon Sugar and its post-apocalyptic concept of Eden? Either way, no fruits forbidden here.

It’s perhaps a measure of the work still to be done around race and equality that pop stars of east Asian heritage, either from the region itself or the UK, almost never find success here; the massively successful BTS are often discussed by the British media in terms usually reserved for British Museum wall text, even though their music is about as straightforwardly appealing as pop gets.

Hearteningly, though, this year’s rising star award shortlist featured two east Asian singers, Japanese-British singer Rina Sawayama, and the winner Griff, who is of Chinese and Jamaican parentage. Sawayama’s mash-up of nu-metal, glossy pop and influences from deconstructed club music is progressive and thrilling; Griff is a safer, decidedly major label prospect who, so far, has been delivering blandly capable songwriting rather than true pop magic. She gives everything to Black Hole in a Weeknd-style apocalyptic wilderness, and her keening voice in the chorus has real character. But it’s hard to escape the fact that this is a bit of a “third single from Rita Ora’s comeback album” level song.

Britain’s current reigning pop star, Dua Lipa, meets its future reigning pop star, the brilliant Rina Sawayama – who may not be taking anything home tonight, but left her mark on the awards by successfully lobbying the BPI to widen its definition of what constitutes a British artist, after her debut album Sawayama was excluded from Mercury contention because – despite living the vast majority of her life in the UK – she was born in Japan. Now, anyone is eligible for the Brits and Mercury as long as they were either born in the UK, hold a UK passport or have been permanently resident in the UK for more than five years.

This is their third nomination and first win! Alana slaps the table, Este looks baffled and takes the lead on their acceptance speech:

Sisters! This is incredible … the UK was the first place to ever embrace us in the entire world and for that, honestly, we will be forever grateful.

The last time a bunch of instrument-slingin’ laydeez won this award was the Corrs in 1999. And before that, the Bangles in 1987. What a lineage! All shade on the Brits for being so unimaginative (the Foo Fighters have won this four times) and absolutely zero shade at all to Haim, whose third album Women in Music Part III was another key lockdown companion. It’s become de rigueur for artists to release records that leap between a dozen different genres, but nobody has managed it as gorgeously or as convincingly as Danielle, Este and Alana, who drew on twangy rock, UK garage, G-funk and more to colour the best songwriting of their career.

Sorry, can’t get enough of this one!

MICHELLE OBAMA IS PRESENTING THIS AWARD?! WHAT! Amazing. She highlights not only Abel Tesfaye’s impact as a musician and a performer, but his charitable donations to Covid relief, Black Lives Matter, food aid in Ethiopia and more. “In a tough year, he’s provided a light that’s pretty blinding and given us all a reason to dance,” Obama concluded.

And here he is, accepting his award in some stagey rain and a nice sou’wester. He thanks his fans and pays tribute to “my people in Ethiopia who are suffering – you are deep in my heart. For everyone watching, please help where you can.”

So, yes, six months on from the Grammys unveiling their 2021 nominations, it’s no less baffling that they totally failed to recognise the towering impact and gripping pop theatrics of Tesfaye’s fourth album, prompting him to pledge a permanent boycott of the Recording Academy. So here’s the Brits doing the right thing (and showing, with his presence as a performer, that despite their protestations, artists kind of do still care about awards ceremonies).

There’s usually some guilty schadenfreude in seeing stars have their dreams of award glory crushed – all those pursed lips after their names aren’t read out provide a particular glee, showing A-listers to be just as prone to the same petty insecurities as all of us. But the Grammys’ snub of the Weeknd this year was just bafflingly wrong. Despite having the biggest album and single of 2020, which were also stone-cold pop classics, he didn’t even get nominated. The pungent fishiness of the whole thing has meant the Grammys have since done away with the secret committees that decide the nominations, which led to this wonderfully dramatic riposte from the Weeknd: “The Grammys’ recent admission of corruption will hopefully be a positive move for the future of this plagued award.”

He gets to have a victory lap at the Brit awards instead, performing Save Your Tears via video in a thoroughly waterproof outfit – a J Hus fisherman reference, we hope – alongside Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never, continuing his unlikely path from super-underground electronic producer to impresario of highly theatrical Weeknd performances (he was also musical director of the Superbowl halftime show). This is a much more ambitious spectacle than the usual phoned-in video link, with the Weeknd leaving a concrete performance box to step into a rainy apocalypse, presumably full of precipitation formed from the tears of his spurned lovers. His vocal, as ever, is supremely confident, studio quality but still live-feeling. World class.

As you may be aware, the Weeknd boycotted the Grammys after it failed to recognise his mammoth – and very worthy – 2020 album After Hours this year. I’d like to think this performance is his tribute to another snubbed artist, strongly evoking the video to Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai – who, staggeringly, have been nominated for 15 Brit awards and won absolutely none of them! Justice for Jay Kay!!!