My Evening at the Brit Awards 2022

Having never sat down long enough to watch an awards ceremony, I decided 2022 was going to be the year. With it being the Brit Awards’ first show without gendered categories, it felt fitting to experience this new era for the awards like everyone else.

The introducing act was… interesting. Personally, I would not have paired Ed Sheeran and Bring Me The Horizon together for ‘Bad Habits’. Despite his attempts at a rock and roll image, next to the heavy screams of Bring Me The Horizon, Ed looked more like an awkward uncle at a wedding.

We started out strong with Best Song of the Year. ‘Heat waves’ by Glass animals was in my top streams but, unsurprisingly, Adele took the award with ‘Easy on Me’, after her album 30 was released at the end of 2021. Although it was not the song I would personally have decided as the winner, it was well deserved and a lot more popular than some of her previous ballads. She didn’t say much in her speech, but this was purely tactical as she would be getting up more than once to accept an award.

The International Song of the Year category was populated by viral hits that had largely shot to fame on TikTok. Olivia Rodrigo came out on top with her breakup banger ‘Good 4 U’ and claimed her second Brit Award in two years. Not only humble about her talent and success, Olivia also acknowledged she has much to be thankful for. The right call for a song I loved having on repeat throughout 2021.

After another ad break, Anne-Marie and KSI joined Digital Farm Animals to a mash-up of the artist’s recent and successful releases before performing their collaboration on single ‘Don’t Play’. The one obvious slip up of the evening came from Anne Marie with her Madonna moment, rolling her ankle walking down the steps at the beginning of her song.

Anne-Marie always puts on a spectacular show so when her voice cracked it caught my attention, to witness her stumble. What a quick recovery! She did continue to look nervous during any other staging choreography, but her voice regained strength in the next song.

Meanwhile rising star KSI’s voice startled me. After heavy auto-tuning on the backing track, I was not expecting him to sound so tuneful.

The R&B music category seemed very spread across a lot of genres, predominantly pop but some of the rising artists were amongst the most talented. Although Dua Lipa would not have been my choice to win against these other artists, she is successful and releases widespread tunes consistently and ultimately, would rather she had won that category than Adele or Ed Sheeran.

Little Simz is one of the acts I was most excited to watch. After seeing her live at Love Saves the Day festival, I know first-hand she’s a phenomenal performer and songwriter. She brought a theatricality to the stage in her choreography, words and costumes and gave me goosebumps. Undoubtedly, one of the best events of the evening!

My favourite segment, Alternative Rock, was populated by all artists I adore – except Coldplay. Why Coldplay is considered Alternative Rock I will never know. A firm fan favourite, Sam Fender took Best Alternative Rock Act, presented by Rolling Stones legend Ronnie Wood, and preceded to get more than a little hammered – which is only what we would expect from our Tory-bashing North Shields boy.

This is pretty much the gist for the rest of the awards:

Dance music is such an underrated category – 16 years since having one: Becky hill deserves the win as she never stops. Her speech was the best so far and am glad it’s her as could have been any one of those songs.

Liam Gallagher performs: he’s still really trying. He does look like he rolled in after spending the night on a park bench. The music isn’t much better – chorus is catchy just would have been better sung by someone else.

Best British group: Would love Wolf Alice to win. Oh my god wow! I am so happy! It is their first Brit award.

International artists:

Ultimately could have been any of them as all are very talented. Taylor Swift should win just for her reclaiming of album Red. Billie Eilish wins and was as ever so deserving. She is touring but her attitude was as gracious as ever.

Performance from rising stars: Griff is beautiful. Holly Humberstone also has a great voice. I really enjoyed the song and makes me want to try singing again.

Best new artist- Little Simz won. She deserved her first Brit award now as the first woman to sell out Brit Academy performances 3 nights in a row.

She took her mum up – which was so heartwarming I wanted to cry. Little Sim’s speech was good and she really used it to make an impact.

Adele gives her average standard her performance – Nice melody but not exciting.

Hip hop rap and grime category is also a favourite of mine- which shocks people?

Little Simz also deserves this but I liked all the artists nominated.

Dave is a classic and his table cheered for Little Simz when she won but I am distracted by his outfit. Is there a new style in suits- looks like a sling because Dave and KSI are wearing one?

International group- I hope it’s maneskin but I forgot ABBA released something new. A lot of oldies but goldies song vibes. Silk sonic win- Bruno Mars and Anderson Park can’t be here which is a shame.

Went into a bit of a fangirl trance for Sam Fender’s performance. Angel of the north is right- Sam fender is what I have been waiting for.

Best artist: Adele wins

She commented how proud she is to be a female artist – is in her right and arguably empowering to say but this is the first year they got rid of the gender categories and her comment seems a little on the edge of criticising the removal of categories, although personally thought it worked a lot better as well as being more inclusive.

Zoned out after songwriter of the year- Ed Sheeran is a very worthy musician with the amount of work he inputs into the industry.

Everyone is getting more and more drunk.

Adele wins Mastercard album, keeping with the trends and biggest album. Her speech got better and more detailed than before – dedicating to son and ex-husband.

Good closing act choice artist with Dave. The set and design are fab and the collaboration is seamless between the artists.

A very satisfying and agreeable awards show, that I now think will become an annual tradition for me and my housemates.

The overall winners and awards

Mastercard album of the year: Adele – 30

Artist of the year- Adele

International artist of the year- Billie Eilish

Best new artist- Little Simz

Best group- Wolf Alice

International group of the year- Silk Sonic

Best pop/R&B- Dua Lipa

Best dance act- Becky Hill

Best rock/alternative act- Sam Fender