Last night, O2 held host to the Brit Awards 2016 and it was an opportunity for all sorts of music types to gather and schmooze and celebrate the best of British artists (well, apart from the grime acts) and a fair few international ones, too. Tomorrow’s headlines will be dominated by Adele, but here are some other things to say about ther:
1. Adele
Adele didn't only win four awards - for Album of the Year, Best British Female Solo Artist, Best Single (for Hello) and the Global Success Award - and she didn't only ‘ugly cry’ - her words. She also dedicated one award, presented to her by astronaut Tim Peake, to her ‘little peanut’, her son Angelo. And of course she went against the grain of one of her record companies - Sony - to voice her support for Kesha.
2. Ant deciding to put a dress on
There seems to be a schism in the Brits; while the show opened with a legion of men and women in red dresses and those brush-y head-dresses and Justin Bieber’s T-shirt was so long it might as well have been a dress anyway, Ant’s biggest skit was to put on a dress. He joked something about a ‘costume change’, but it seemed to hit a bum note…it wasn’t even offensive, it was just a bit…passé. Especially when you consider this was how the presenting duo followed up a tribute to David Bowie, a man who - amongst many other things - wore bloody dresses in the 1970s!
3. Lorde doing Bowie
We can’t put our finger on it yet but there’s something intriguing about the fact the two biggest Bowie tributes at the world’s biggest musical events have been done by women - Gaga at the Grammys, and now Lorde at the Brits. We might have had longer to thrash that idea out but we were way too distracted by Lorde, dressed up like Madonna at the 1997 VMAs (in a baggy black suit and straightened, middle-parted hair, androgynous in a way Bowie never was) and singing Life on Mars. The opening spiel from Annie Lennox and Gary Oldman was personal and intimate, but Lorde’s performance - with Bowie’s very own backing band, was just as sincere and heartfelt.
4. Sadie Penn aka best photobomber of all time
We don’t know Sadie that well, but after cosying up to Ant and Dec in a sheer outfit with just a few strips of latex to cover her privates, as they were trying to present, we want to know her a lot more. She elevated photobombing to an elegant and sultry new level and hinted at the debauched side of the event.
5. Rihanna bringing Drake
She might have had her shades on in front of a lit up visual which resembled the screen of a TV that’s been dropped a few times, but Rihanna brought dancehall, and she also brought Drake. As impromptu as his appearance and opening vocals may have seemed, you just know they practised that twerking, otherwise there would’ve been some serious willy-bashing boing on in that daggering session.
6. One Direction! Sort of
Liam and Louis turned up to accept One Direction’s award for Best Video. They also presented Adele’s award to her, standing by quietly as she did her shout out for Kesha (FYI they're all kind of on the same label, Sony) And later on, being interviewed for the afterparty show, they were asked what they’d been doing in their downtime. Louis joked Liam was trying to be more mature, to which Liam replied ‘well you’re a dad now’. Meanwhile, repping X Factor’s finest pop group that still remains to be making music, Little Mix gave a rip-roaring rendition of Black Magic which contained some of the best live vocals of the night - when they were singing live, that is.
7. James Bay has more Brits than hats
Turns out he only wears one hat just all of the time. He thanked his family and his management and his fans for all their support but maybe it’s time to thank anyone who stands down-wind of that hat, eh?
8. Justin Bieber robbing Father John Misty
Justin and James Bay performed the beginning of Love Yourself together around a little camp fire before Justin charged off in his beautiful jacket to perform Sorry in amongst a load of fire. The different levels of fire were, well, lit. And when Major Lazer (a group which contains Diplo, who also happens to be in Jack U who produced much of Justin Bieber’s album) went up to present the award for Best International Male, it looked like Justin was set to win. But when he did, one fellow nominee, Father John Misty, was not happy.
He later tweeted ‘I was robbed’
9. Coldplay making a boo-boo or two
Accepting the award for Best British Band, Chris Martin listed out the names of all the other co-nominees. Until he forgot one, saying, into the microphone, ‘and the other ones’. The other ones were Years + Years! And lo, within a minute, when Chris pretended that he and his band were One Direction, and he was Niall, he pointed to each of his bandmates and gave them a One Direction name. So there was Harry and Liam and, um, Zayn. But no Louis! Good thing Chris’s son Moses Martin was on-hand to subliminally remind us all that Chris is allowed to have foibles like this because he’s a dad and that’s what dads do.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.