Even the BRIT Awards went ‘Brat’ as Charli xcx as the singer-songwriter-producer and her 2024-dominating album swept the board with five gongs at the U.K.’s leading music awards ceremony.
But despite her huge (and predicted) success after countless memes and “Brat Summer,” Charli’s decision not to perform at her big Saturday night homecoming party at the O2 Arena — despite being in attendance and having performed at last month’s Grammys — was surely more of a Brat bummer for show organizers on a night that was otherwise light on bona-fide British global stars.
Returning host Jack Whitehall made light of the singer’s absence from the performance line-up, quipping that her decision to not play live in order to “get drunk” was the most British thing ever.
Yet Charli — who was also named Variety’s 2024 Hitmaker of the Year — still dominated proceedings, making multiple visits to the podium for winning artist, album, song and best dance act — four wins out of her five nominations, plus her previously announced songwriter of the year prize, while her long-time collaborator A.G. Cook won producer of the year.
Her success certainly gave the night a focal point as she used her trips to the stage to shout out her dance-music heroes and claim that ITV had “complained about my nipples.”
She saved the best speech for last, saying she’d always previously felt like an outsider in the British industry and hailing her success as “living proof that you don’t need to compromise your vision – if you do your own thing and do it well, people will be right there with you.”
XCX’s fellow big Brit names, however, were not there with her. The Beatles may have featured (unsuccessfully) in the nominations (“Stick at it lads,” deadpanned Whitehall), but with no Adele, no Ed Sheeran, no Coldplay and no Dua Lipa — and no sign of Oasis, despite Whitehall’s constant teases — it was very much up to the new Brit breed to step up on the performance front.
First, though, there was some help from our friends across the Atlantic. Surprisingly, Sabrina Carpenter – who organizers were so keen to have perform that they gave her the “Global Success” award, a made-up gong usually given to entice along a British superstar who otherwise would not have been honored at the ceremony — opened the show and made quite an impression with “Espresso”, accompanied by a troop of busby-clad Royal Horse Artillery-style guardsmen, with Carpenter herself wearing a military-inspired outfit that definitely wouldn’t pass a kit inspection.
She kept it Busby for the next segment — Busby Berkeley, that is — for a saucy performance of “Bed Chem” before disappearing through a trap door with one of the soldiers. She used her droll acceptance speech to hail “a predominantly tea-drinking country” for streaming “Espresso” so wildly.
Next up, Teddy Swims — seemingly dressed as a duvet but with a voice as smooth as silk sheets — glided through a medley, ending with a rendition of “Lose Control” that even had the industry tables singing along.
After all that American glamor, however, it was time for some true British grit. And after a largely barren 2024, the U.K. does at least have a couple of stars threatening to break out internationally, so it was no surprise the BRITs had them both on the show, even if their awards success is more likely to peak next year.
Myles Smith, awarded the BRITs Rising Star award in the run-up to the ceremony, romped pleasantly through the algorithm-friendly pop of “Nice to Meet You” and “Stargazing”, but at least made himself stand out with his speech. Handed the prize by last year’s winners the Last Dinner Party, he took aim at both the government (“If music is one of the most powerful exports we have, why have you treated it as an afterthought for so many years?”) and the industry (“Are we building careers or just chasing moments?”).
Meanwhile, Lola Young — whose superb “Messy” hit has been a fixture of Spotify’s Global Top 10 and a No.1 single in her home country — might have taken a while to get here (she signed to Island back in 2019, which at least proves the value of long-term artist development), but she’s certainly making the most of her arrival. Her take on her hit, performed from a stage set like a messy bedsit, complete with washing machine, was the night’s most compelling musical moment and confirmation of a bright new star in the dimming U.K. firmament.
Some of the other performers may have been less familiar internationally, although Alternative/Rock Act winner Sam Fender was already confirmed as a true local hero the night before the awards, when his “People Watching” album crashed in at No.1, becoming the first U.K. solo artist album to pass 100,000 sales in a single week since Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” in 2022.
Fender is cut from a different cloth; his unashamedly blue-collar worldview accompanied by relentless indie-rock riffing on “People Watching.” It might normally have seemed a little out of place amidst the glitz of the BRITs, but he’s striking such a chord in the UK heartlands, with a sold-out stadium tour set for the summer, that it felt more like a warm-up for him doing a Charli xcx next year. If he could also break America, the U.K. business’ future would certainly look a lot brighter.
And indeed, the mood amongst the industry on the arena floor had a touch of nervousness amidst all the raucous celebrations. Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, Warner Records chair Tom Corson and YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen (who also hosted a boat party on the way to the O2) were all in the house. But after a year of big shake-ups at the major labels, as well as the breakthrough drought, the U.K.’s perennial fear of being reduced to just another European outpost of the U.S. industry has sometimes looked closer to reality than ever.
The future depends on re-starting the once steady flow of fresh U.K. talent and tonight might just have sparked the fightback. There was certainly no shortage of contenders on stage, even if some of the other performers would have been less familiar to the mainstream ITV1 audience watching at home.
True, they probably recognized Jade Thirlwall – now known professionally as simply Jade – a winner and performer here in the past with Little Mix. With the Mixers struggling to establish solo careers at the same level of their on-hiatus group, Jade could be the one who cracks it. She picked up the pop act award (beating Charli xcx), while her performance of “Angel of My Dreams” was the night’s visual standout, featuring her ascending to the heavens with some giant wings, and generally proving as delightfully all over the place as the song she was singing.
The Last Dinner Party, or “the Tatler Girls Aloud”, as Whitehall dubbed them – winners of the Rising Star award last time out and Best New Artist this time around, when they urged viewers to support grassroots venues – continued to defy the cynics, with singer Abigail Morris confirming her star credentials with a twirling, self-censoring performance on “Nothing Matters” that was part Kate Bush, part Freddie Mercury and all alternative rock gold.
There would have been little such brand recognition for Ezra Collective, the first jazz act to win British Group and perform on the show, but still consigned to the very end, vibrantly duetting with Jorja Smith as the industry tables emptied and people at home no doubt reached for the remote.
Indeed, in this year of the underdog, one of the biggest British names on display was probably the host. Jack Whitehall has done a lot of work in Hollywood since he last presented the BRITs in 2021, but he’s lost none of his edge, happily trotting out near-the-knuckle jokes about The Last Dinner Party (“the Tatler Girls Aloud”), Stormzy (“the grime scene’s Ronald McDonald”) and Coldplay (“the [private] school Nickelback”).
Although he possibly bit off more than he could chew when interviewing Cockney actor Danny Dyer, who seemed to berate Chappell Roan for not attending to pick up her awards for international artist of the year and international song (“She couldn’t be fucked to be here”), dropped the C-bomb and called Prime Minister Kier Starmer “a slag,” most of which was censored for the live broadcast. Ireland’s Fontaines D.C. (international group) and last year’s all-conquering winner Raye (R&B act) didn’t turn up either.
Dyer’s outburst maintained some of the BRITs’ rock’n’roll reputation (although the actual musicians were far more polite, Stormzy quoting the Bible and saying the award should have gone to Central Cee as he accepted the hip-hop/grime/rap act trophy), but the show also showed its sensitive side, with a classy tribute and video montage to Liam Payne, so often a winner here with One Direction.
Overall, there was a sense of the BRITs – and the wider U.K. industry – making the best of a far-from-vintage year for British music success, with Atlantic U.K. MD Damian Christian overseeing a slick, fast-paced showcase for everything the U.K. scene has to offer in his final stint as showrunner. And, with some green shoots of talent starting to break through, and some of the nation’s superstars set to be back in cycle soon, things could look very different in 12 months’ time.
And so, as the industry headed off to some traditionally lavish aferparties – Warner Music going hard at Claridge’s, Sony Music taking over the Nobu Hotel and Universal hosting at 180 Studios – there was a sense of hope in the air, although still plenty to ponder.
Chiefly, how do you turn a Brat summer into a full four seasons of Brit success? We’ll see …
BRITs 2025 Winners In Full
Global Success Award – Sabrina Carpenter
Songwriter of the Year – Charli XCX
Producer of the Year – A.G. Cook
BRITs Rising Star – Myles Smith
R&B Act – Raye
Pop Act – Jade
Hip-hop/Grime/Rap Act – Stormzy
Dance Act – Charli XCX
Alternative/Rock Act – Sam Fender
International Song of the Year – Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”
International Group of the Year – Fontaines D.C.
International Artist of the Year – Chappell Roan
Group of the Year – Ezra Collective
Best New Artist – The Last Dinner Party
Song of the Year with Mastercard – Charli XCX, “Guess”
Artist of the Year – Charli XCX
Mastercard Album of the Year – Charli XCX, “Brat”
