Brit Music Awards

The Brit Awards, often simply called The Brits, are the annual United Kingdom pop music awards founded by the British Phonographic Industry.

The awards began in 1977 under the auspices of the BPI, the British record industry’s trade association. The last BPI Awards show took place at the Albert Hall and was the first prime-time TV event. In 1989 they were renamed The Britannia Awards, or Brit Awards. MasterCard is the long-time sponsor of this annual event.

Brit is also a backronym for British Record Industry Trust which supports youngsters in the arts and education mainly at The BRIT School in London.

Strong music industry sponsorship and involvement mean that awards are given without much democratic process and, many suspect, for strongly commercial reasons. These are awards given by the music industry to the music industry. Robbie Williams pointed this out accepting an award a few years back. More recently, the awards have more reflected the tastes of the record-buying public, with an artist needing to prove popular and chart-topping before they are rewarded.

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The Brit Awards used to be broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood hosted a shambolic show in which just about everything went wrong – lines were fluffed, bands mis-cued, and airtime filled with embarrassing silence. After this the show was recorded, and broadcast the following night, part of a revamp by Jonathan King for 1990 whose actions also included releasing a megamix of British dance acts including S’Express and A Guy Called Gerald called Brits 1990. King subsequently went on to revamp A Song for Europe.

Pre-recording proved to be a good idea when, during a Michael Jackson performance in 1996, Jarvis Cocker from the band Pulp invaded the stage in an impromptu protest at Jackson’s ‘messianic’ performance. There have been many such notable instances, including several UK politicians presenting awards and being heckled (and, in the case of John Prescott, having water thrown over him, at the 1998 awards, by Chumbawamba vocalist Danbert Nobacon) and a remarkable performance by The KLF in 1992.

As of the 2007 Brit Awards, the show will once again be broadcast live on British television, airing on 14 February 2007 live on ITV1. Comedian Russell Brand will present the event. Three awards have been dropped from the 2007 ceremony – Best British Rock Act, Best British Urban Act and Best Pop Act.

In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for classical music, called the Classical Brit Awards, is held each May.

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