The BRIT Awards 2014 - The Best of British sparkle again

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

The finest talent in British and international music gathered at the 02 Arena in London on Wednesday night (19 February) for the biggest night in the music industry. The 2014 BRIT Awards provided some great live performances and memorable collaborations in a show that revived the sparkle that had evidently been missing 12 months earlier.

Rudimental and Bastille came together with one of the finest BRIT partnerships live on stage, whilst there were also live gigs from Ellie Goulding, Bruno Mars, the Arctic Monkeys and Pharrell Williams.

It was a brilliant night for the Arctic Monkeys who scooped two awards

On the awards front, it was Arctic Monkeys (pictured above) who were the big winners. Not only did they open the show in grand fashion, they walked off with two awards including the prestigious MasterCard British Album of the Year. To no-one’s surprise, One Direction also won two more BRITS to their collection but despite earning four nominations, Disclosure walked away with nothing. There were acts as young as 17 and as old as 67 also collecting these prestigious gongs.

Corden’s final farewell

This was the final year that the BRITS were to be hosted by James Corden. Having hosted the show for four years on the bounce, he decided to step aside back in November from 2015 onwards. Corden arrived on stage to introduce the evening’s entertainment with his sleeve on fire (pictured below) in a stunt which was clearly part of the opening act by Arctic Monkeys. He did try to blame their pyrotechnics but no-one was falling for that.

James Corden's final ceremony as host began with his sleeve on fire!

The actor and presenter who is best known for his roles in Gavin & Stacey and A League of Their Own kept everything together, although his mucking around with Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw was unnecessary. Nevertheless while he is replaceable, there will be something odd about Corden not hosting the BRITS anymore.

First award of the night went to the sensational Ellie Goulding. She deservedly picked up Best British Female Solo Artist and later went on to put in a fiery rendition of her two most familiar songs in the last 12 months; ‘Burn’ and ‘I Need Your Love.’ Fellow beaut Katy Perry produced the most colourful performance of the night. She gave an electrifying performance of new single ‘Dark Horse’ in an electrifying outfit. However she was beaten to the International Female Solo Artist by New Zealander Lorde, who is one of the BRITS youngest winners at just 17.

50 years her senior and David Bowie won Best British Male Solo Artist. The 67-year-old was not in attendance to collect the accolade and it was left to model Kate Moss to provide an acceptance speech on his behalf. The speech included references to Scotland going to the polls later this year in a bid for independence. It had no relevance to the night’s performances and his view could have been saved for another day and another time.

The loo is important!

Now when a male normally needs to go to the toilet, he must go! However, the timing of this can sometimes be a bit off and the ladies’ favourite Harry Styles certainly got his timings totally out of joint.

Whether he was in a long queue, having a private moment or tying John Terry up to stop him stealing another award is irrelevant, he had to dash back onto stage when he found out that One Direction had won the Global Success award for a second successive year. With 11.5m in global sales and a box office movie in the last year, this award was extremely predictable. The boyband were back later in the night to collect the inaugural award for Best British Video, which was voted by users of the social media giant Twitter. The video was for ‘Best Song Ever’ and this time; Harry actually made it onto stage without needing to visit the cubicles!

Bruno Mars regained the International Male Solo Artist award he last won two years ago, before putting in an uneventful live performance. Flying in especially for the event was another popular American in Beyoncé, who did put in a classy performance.

Listeners of BBC Radio 1 supported and voted for the highly acclaimed British Breakthrough award. There were a series of live lounges the week before from the five contenders and eventually, the fiercely competitive award saw Bastille coming out on top. Their album ‘Bad Blood’ was the most downloaded album of the last 12 months.

Clever collaborations

The first collaboration of the night was from Lorde and Disclosure who put in a unique performance together for the first time. It was a clever routine, even if it lacked the fireworks of other live acts on the night.

An even better collaboration and far more catchy was the one from Rudimental and Bastille. It is so popular; it is currently in the top 10 of the iTunes music chart this week. It was a good evening for Rudimental. They won Best British Single for ‘Waiting All Night’ which is their first BRIT award and if the evidence of the last calendar year is anything to go by, the first of many.

Arctic Monkeys won Best British Group for a third time which was a great award for them to win, considering those popular lads from One Direction were nominated. The biggest award though was the last, as the Arctic’s album ‘AM’ held off stiff competition from Bastille, Rudimental, Disclosure and David Bowie to win the MasterCard Album of the Year. The other award winner was Sam Smith, who had been confirmed last month as winner of the Critics’ Choice for 2014. It will be interesting to see if he can follow in the footsteps of previous winners ADELE, Florence & the Machine and Emeli Sande. The show was closed by Pharrell Williams and music icon Nile Rodgers.

Despite huge social media following with over four million messages on Twitter, TV viewing figures were disastrous, both for the organisers and for ITV. A measly 4.6m tuned in to watch – the lowest ratings since the show went live back in 2007.

While the evening might have lacked controversy, it was a strong show with some superb live music mixed in with the usual awards ceremony. The BRITS will continue to get people talking for many years to come.

Categories: Arctic Monkeys, Bastille, BRIT Awards, Ellie Goulding, James Corden, Katy Perry, London, Music, One Direction, Rudimental

Music 2013 - Unexpected surprises

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

2013 has had its fair share of moments in music, with a variety of new stars making a big breakthrough this year and the end for several of the established groups that many of us have grown up with in more recent times.

No fewer than 18 new artists topped the number one single charts for the first time in their careers. For Robin Thicke, it was a double celebration. His massive hit ‘Blurred Lines’ was not only his first number one but it has spent the most weeks on the top spot in 2013 – unmoved for five consecutive weeks.

It was a brilliant year for Avicii, who managed to scoop two number ones in the same year for their songs ‘You Make Me’ and ‘Wake Me Up.’ Another newcomer who enjoyed a breakthrough year was Yorkshire-born John Newman, who won much acclaim for his debut album 'Tribute' and singles that included the catchy ‘Love Me Again,’ then ‘Cheating.’ 2013 was also the year Ellie Goulding finally hit top spot with ‘Burn’ after several near-misses. Another breakthrough act were Kodaline although they just missed out on top spot with superb songs 'High Hopes' and 'Brand New Day.'

Other newbies to make the top spot included Icona Pop, OneRepublic and Storm Queen. There was also an unbelievable and highly unexpected number one for PJ & Duncan, better known to the majority of us as Ant & Dec. In 1994, their song ‘Let’s Get Ready to Rumble’ came in the time their days on Byker Grove were coming to an end. For the first time in 19 years, the duo performed it again on entertainment show Saturday Night Takeaway in what was only meant to be a fun combination with members of reunited groups. It became such a big hit on YouTube and iTunes that it stormed to the top spot in the charts the following week. The Newcastle duo looked surprised when appearing the following week on their Takeaway programme but accepted the acclaim and of course made the most of their success in true PJ & Duncan fashion!

Irish pop band Boyzone celebrated their 20^th anniversary recently, releasing an album of their greatest hits. Another band that shows no sign of slowing up is Take That. This year, they took more of a backseat whilst Gary Barlow focused on solo artist music but there are plans for a tour next year, with Robbie Williams rumoured to be rejoining the band for part of 2014.

Katy Perry's 'Roar' was one of the best overseas hits of 2013

American music had success once again. Nicole Scherzinger had a tough personal time after another break-up with Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton this summer but she released the catchy ‘Boomerang’ in March – her first solo single in two years. Nicole has already announced plans to release a second solo album next year in an attempt to follow up on the success of her first album, ‘Killer Love’ back in 2011. Miley Cyrus also made it to number one this year for the first time after some time away from the limelight, whilst ‘Roar’ spent three weeks in top spot for the amazing Katy Perry (pictured).

Lily Allen returned to the music scene in 2013. The singer, who walked away from the industry three years ago first returned with P!nk to perform backing vocals on ‘True  Love.’ She then released a cover of Keane’s 2004 song ‘Somewhere Only We Know,’ which was used as the soundtrack for this year’s John Lewis Christmas TV advert. Like it or not, it has taken Lily to number one for three weeks, keeping One Direction’s latest hit ‘Story of My Life,’ off number one. One Direction did though make the big screen this year with the 1D Movie becoming one of the fastest selling box office hits of the year and getting a lot of obvious attention from the female contingent.

Allen actually has an outside chance of scooping the coveted Christmas number one which this year, is a fairly limited crop of choices. Favourite to land the prize is Sam Bailey. The prison officer won this year’s X-Factor, topping the public vote on a regular basis and immediately shooting to the top of the charts with ‘Skyscraper.’

All four of the 2013 X-Factor judges all look set to move on

It wasn’t the greatest year for the X-Factor with a lack of eye-catching performances, or even acts who offer a bit more of a comic feel. Even the one series return of Sharon Osbourne didn’t attract new viewers to the programme. All four judges (pictured) are set to leave the programme, with Barlow, Osbourne and Louis Walsh all previously stated in public they won’t be back in 2014. With Scherzinger likely to focus on her music, a new panel is set to be formed with Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole all but formally confirmed to make sensational returns. Rita Ora is also a frontrunner to be a judge next year. It wasn’t a good year for former X-Factor judge Tulisa though, charged in December by police for possession of class A drugs.

One of X-Factor’s biggest successes was JLS but the runners-up of the programme back in 2008 decided this year to go their separate ways. The boys are currently on their farewell tour before heading in different directions. It was a busy year for the Saturdays, who finally claimed their first number one with 'What About Us' and two of the group members, Frankie and Rochelle gave birth during the year. Other groups to disband formally in 2013 included Lostprophets, the Sugababes and Girls Aloud.

BBC talent show The Voice returned in March but once again lost its way after a promising start to series two. Winner Andrea Begley has released a rather forgettable debut single and has gone in a similar direction to Michelle McManus and Leon Jackson which is nowhere. Changes have been made and radical ones too. Frontman of The Script Danny O’Donoghue and Jessie J have both quit as coaches, replaced by Kylie Minogue and Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs. The show moves into a January slot for 2014 in an effort to attract more fans. ITV tried to reunite some of yesteryear’s biggest bands but this was another flop as stars from Atomic Kitten, Blue, Five and Liberty X only failed to find the chemistry they once had over a decade ago. They have performed a Christmas single that is so bad, watching an episode of Emmerdale over the festive period might be a bit more bearable.

It was Emeli Sande’s night at the BRIT awards in February. She won MasterCard Best British Album of the Year for ‘Our Version of Events’ and ‘British Female Solo Artist.’ Tom Odell was winner of the Critics’ Choice award, while there were also gongs for Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Lana Del Rey and ADELE, who won Best British Single for the incredible version of ‘Skyfall,’ used for last year’s global James Bond movie success.

Popstar Sophie Ellis-Bextor has made the final of the 11^th series of Strictly Come Dancing with some consistent performances that have always kept her away from danger. She will compete in the final on 21 December. Bonnie Tyler was chosen as the United Kingdom’s representative at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo. She claimed a more respectable 19^th place with 28 points as Denmark took the prize to take the 2014 event to Copenhagen. Robbie Williams’ album ‘Swings Both Ways’ became the 1000^th album to reach number one on the UK albums chart in November and a month earlier, golden oldie and former member of The Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney released his first new album in six years. ‘New’ reached number three in the albums list.

It is fair to say 2013 has provided the public with some welcome and unexpected surprises. With more emerging artists coming through, 2014 promises to be another action-packed year in the music industry.

Categories: 2013, Ant & Dec, Avicii, Ellie Goulding, Eurovision Song Contest, John Newman, Katy Perry, Kodaline, Music, X-Factor