Electricians' strike (1987) In 1987 the BPI Awards ceremony was held in the Great Room at the
Grosvenor House Hotel. At the time there was a BBC electricians' strike in effect, and the organisers decided to use a non-TV events production company, called Upfront, to manage the show. Despite the show being picketed, the event was transmitted as intended. For a while, the outdoor broadcast scanner was rocked on its wheels by the protesters and they managed to shut off the power to one of the big GE video screen projectors. Upfront was then asked to organise the following year and persuaded the BPI to move the event to a larger venue, starting the trend that continues to this day, albeit at The O2, and with a different production company (MJK Productions).
Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood (1989) In 1989, the ceremony was broadcast live and presented by
Fleetwood Mac's
Mick Fleetwood and singer
Samantha Fox. The inexperience of the hosts, an ineffective autocue, and little preparation combined to create an unprofessional show that was poorly received.
Freddie Mercury's final public appearance (1990) The 1990 awards ceremony saw the last public appearance of
Queen frontman
Freddie Mercury. Queen appeared at the ceremony to receive the
Outstanding Contribution to Music. Mercury (who had been suffering from AIDS since 1987 but had not disclosed it to the public) did not make a speech, as
Brian May did the talking on behalf of the other members, but his gaunt appearance was noticeable.
The KLF (1992) In 1992, dance/art band
The KLF was awarded Best British Group (shared with
Simply Red) and were booked to open the show. In an attempt to hijack the event, the duo collaborated with
grindcore metal band
Extreme Noise Terror to perform a
death metal version of the dance song "
3 a.m. Eternal", complete with flame-throwers, and ending with
Bill Drummond firing blanks from a vintage machine gun over the audience. KLF publicist/announcer
Scott Piering stated "
Ladies and gentlemen, The KLF have now left the music business". The performance prompted conductor
Sir Georg Solti to walk out in disgust. Producers of the show then refused to let a motorcycle courier collect the award on behalf of the band. Later that evening, the KLF dumped a dead sheep outside the venue of an after-show party,
Oasis and Blur rivalry (1996) 1996 saw the height of a feud between
Britpop bands
Oasis and
Blur. The differing styles of the bands, coupled with their prominence within the Britpop movement, led the British media to seize upon the rivalry between the bands. Both factions played along, with the Gallaghers taunting Blur at the 1996 BRIT Awards by singing a rendition of "
Parklife" when they collected their award for Best British Group (with
Liam Gallagher changing the lyrics to "Shite-life" and
Noel Gallagher changing them to "
Marmite").
Russell Brand (2007) The host of the 2007 awards ceremony, comedian
Russell Brand made several quips relating to news stories of the time including
Robbie Williams entering
rehab for addiction to
prescription drugs, the Queen's 'naughty bits' and a fatal
friendly fire incident involving a British soldier killed by American armed forces in Iraq.
ITV received over 300 complaint calls from viewers. He would again instigate controversy the following year at the
2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
Adele speech cut short (2012) Adele won the
British Album of the Year widely regarded as the most coveted award. Less than half a minute into her acceptance speech, host
James Corden was forced to cut Adele off in order to introduce
Blur who were due to perform an eleven-minute set as they had received the Outstanding Contribution to Music and the ceremony was running over its allotted time. Adele was visibly annoyed and proceeded to raise her middle finger and the producers of the show came under fire on Twitter for the decision. Following the incident Adele said "I got cut off during my speech for Best Album and I flung the middle finger. But that finger was to the suits at The BRIT Awards, not to my fans". Adele received an apology from the show's organisers, who stated; "We send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short. We don't want this to undermine her incredible achievement in winning our night's biggest award. It tops off what's been an incredible year for her." Due to the tight schedule, only three of the five songs Blur played were broadcast on
ITV.
Alex Turner speech (2014) In 2014
Arctic Monkeys won the
British Album of the Year. When the band got up on stage to receive the award, lead singer
Alex Turner, started his speech by testing the mic and then talked about the cyclical nature of rock music, saying that even if its popularity declines it will never die as a music genre, while the rest of the band laughed in the background. He ended the speech by saying, "Invoice me for the microphone if you need to",
dropped it to the ground, and left the stage. That night they became the first act to win both British Album and British Group three times. The speech divided both press and audience, being labeled as both "pretentious twaddle" and a sincere defence of the genre, as well as garnering reactions from other musicians, with
Johnny Marr saying it was "quite poetic". When asked a few days later, Turner said, "In public, I'm a quiet guy, so doing anything in front of lots of people always makes me nervous. I'm known for my music, not how well I deliver a speech. People always assume if you're in a band that's been on the scene for ages that you're going to be really confident, but that's not true at all." In a 2016 interview with
Rolling Stone, he re-addressed the speech, "A lot of people thought I was waffling away on drugs, but I wasn't. I just can't pretend getting an award was something I've dreamed about since I was a kid, because it isn't." In 2022 when an interviewer implied the speech was akin to performance art, Turner seemed to agree.
Wet Leg's singer Rhian Teasdale quoted part of Turner's speech, during the
2023 ceremony, as the band won
New Artist.
David Bowie enters Scottish independence debate (2014) At 67 years of age, musician
David Bowie became the oldest recipient of now defunct
British Male Solo Artist. Bowie's unusual intervention in British politics garnered a significant reaction throughout the UK on social media.
Little Mix Best British Group win and speech (2021) In 2021,
Little Mix's win for British Group marked the first time that a girl group had won that award since it was first introduced in 1977. The group used their acceptance speech to call out white male dominance, misogyny, sexism and lack of diversity in the industry. Fellow group member
Leigh-Anne Pinnock stated "It's not easy being a female in the UK pop industry. We've all seen the white male dominance, misogyny, sexism, and lack of diversity. We're proud of how we've stuck together, stood for our group, surrounded ourselves with strong women, and are now using our voices more than ever." Little Mix also called out the awards ceremony for the lack of nominations and wins for female groups in the category. This is despite the Brit Awards voters including 1,000+ members of the music industry (see Voting Procedure, below), and more than 50% of the music workforce 'identifying as female' for a number of years. They also paid homage to previous "female bands" including the
Spice Girls,
Sugababes,
All Saints, and
Girls Aloud etc, who all had made significant contributions to pop culture in the UK but were overlooked by the Brit Awards.
Raye sets a new record (2024) At the
Brit Awards 2024, English singer-songwriter
Raye received seven nominations, making her the most nominated artist in a single year breaking a record held by Gorillaz, Craig David and Robbie Williams. Furthermore, she broke the record for the most wins received in a single night with six in total. == Notable performances ==