2014 BRIT Awards by Willy

BRITs 2014 host James Corden holding the new statue / Photo: JM Enternational

I have just finished watching the 2014 BRIT Awards, which took place on February 19 at the O2 Arena in London and let me tell you I had so much fun, especially with the quality of the performances by a lot of the huge names in the industry.

Jessie J on the red carpet.
*Click on the picture to enlarge* 

James Corden, who has pretty much done everything in the business, hosted the ceremony. This time was his forth consecutive time doing so, also his final. There was a lot of big names in attendance, amongst them Nicole Scherzinger (who is kind of a big deal in the UK only, for being an X Factor Judge), Kylie Minogue (who is currently a coach on The Voice UK and doing a great job at it), Katy Perry, Prince, Ellie Goulding, Pharrell Williams, Noel Gallagher from Oasis, Jessie J (who was heavily criticised for her choice of outfit to walk the red carpet), Kate Moss (who collected the British Male Solo Artist award for David Bowie), Rita Ora, Tinie Tempah, Lily Allen, etc.  Also, this year a new statue was given as an award which was designed by the Irish fashion designer Philip Treacy who stated his inspiration for the 2014 trophy “comes from a uniquely British genre of music: Punk”. He has also made headwear for Lady Gaga and Madonna. The previous statue was designed by the also fashion designer Vivienne Westwood in 2011.

I must say the entire ceremony was very entertaining, British people have a very particular sense of humor and they can actually say a lot of funny/offensive things we don’t get to see in American award shows for instance.  Like when Corden asked One Direction about Justin Bieber and his recent behavior or questioned what Harry Styles was doing in the bathroom that was late to receive an award. For me, it didn’t get boring in certain moments like The Grammy’s did and they kept it all very current.

One Direction at the BRITs 2014
Photo: Jon Furniss/Invision/AP

Arctic Monkeys and One Direction were the biggest winners of the night taking home two awards. Arctic Monkeys made history by being the first act taking home both Best British album (for the very successful “AM”) and Best British Group for the third time. And One Direction won BRITs Global Success Award for the second time and British Video (for “Best Song Ever”), which was voted by the fans via Twitter of course.  Amongst the other winners was Ellie Goulding for British Female Solo Act, Bastille for British Breakthrough Act, Rudimental for British Single of The Year with the hit “Waiting All Night” featuring Ella Eyre, Lorde for International Female Solo Artist, Bruno Mars for International Male Solo Artist and Daft Punk for International Group.

Arctic Monkeys receiving one of their awards
Photo: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

The performances to me were more important than the actual awards and like I mentioned before the quality was impeccable. The Arctic Monkeys opened the ceremony with a great performance of “R U Mine?” reminding people that Rock music is still alive; Beyoncé was kind of a big deal this year since it was the first time in ten years she attended the BRITS, her performance of “XO” was cute with not so much paraphernalia like Katy Perry -as Katy Patra- who performed “Dark Horse” with a great Egyptian neon production but her vocals weren’t that good. Then again this is nothing new.  Bruno Mars performed “Treasure” to continue with his great 2014 after the Grammys and the Superbowl. Ellie Goulding did an acoustic version of her song with Calvin Harris, “I Need Your Love” followed by “Burn” with drums on fire.  And then my three favorite performances:

3. Pharrell and Nile Rodgers – “Get Lucky”, “Good Times” and “Happy”.

We must remember that “Happy” was a hit in the UK before it was in the rest of the world. Pharrell as usual didn’t disappoint closing the show with his performance and had Nile Rodgers who is also responsible for the success Daft Punk had with “Random Access Memories”.

2. Bastille + Rudimental (ft. Ella Erye) – “Pompeii” and “Waiting All Night”

This performance was so full of energy.  It was so good it reminded me of how I felt watching Imagine Dragons at the Grammys. These two songs are a massive hit in the UK and “Pompeii” is already an international hit by charting in the top 10 of countries like USA, Germany, New Zealand, Belgium, etc.

1. Disclosure with Lorde and Aluna Francis – “Royals” and “White Noise”.

This is my favorite performance from the night for so many reasons. First of all Disclosure was my favorite musical discovery from last year and their album “settle” is also one of my favorites from 2013. “White Noise” is on my running playlist and its beat always makes me move. The fact that they mixed a slowed down beat of it with Lorde’s “Royals” made it all perfection. I still don’t know how to feel about Lorde in general but everything about this performance was perfect.

The 2014 broadcast may have had the BRITs lowest ratings yet but overall it was a very entertaining show to me. I hope the MTV Video Music Awards performers line-up this year is as good as the BRITs. I’m sure if they focus on the music again the quality of it will go up again and people won't be disappointed after watching.

*For more information about the 2014 BRITs visit: 

http://www.brits.co.uk

*To watch all the performances from the BRITs visit: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/thebritawards