Brit Awards 2015 was held on 25 February 2015. This was the 35th edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The awards ceremony was held at The O2 Arena in London, presented by Ant & Dec. This was their second time hosting, and their first since 2001.[2] Award nominations were revealed on 15 January 2015.[3]Tracey Emin became the fifth artist to style the BRITs statue.[4]
Performances
The Brits Are Coming: Nominations Launch Party
Reggie Yates hosted the launch show inside the ITV Studios in London on Thursday 15 January.
Kanye West was confirmed to perform just the day before the awards took place.[13] He performed his song "All Day" amongst a large entourage including grime musicians Skepta, Stormzy, Krept and Konan, Jammer and Novelist. The entourage held flamethrowers and wore all black. However, his performance was repeatedly muted throughout most of the track for those watching on television due to the extreme explicit language featured within the song's lyrics, with the use of "nigga" being repeatedly rapped live on ITV.[14]
The performance drew mixed reactions from the crowd, with presenters Ant & Dec joking about it afterwards, and divided opinions on social media; some criticising West's performance and some criticising how ITV dealt with the issue.[15]
Madonna incident
Madonna was the last to perform on the night, singing a version of her song "Living for Love" to close the show and mark her first Brits performance in 20 years.[16] Shortly into her performance, a problem with her costume caused her to be pulled down a flight of stairs that made up part of the stage.[17]
She later took to Instagram to confirm that she was uninjured, posting "Thanks for the good wishes! I'm fine".[18] It was later revealed that her cape was tied too tightly when her dancers attempted to remove it from her neck, causing her to crash to the floor and leaving the audience in shock.[19]
After several seconds, she continued the performance as planned.[20]
The Brit Awards 2015 is a compilation and box set which includes the "63 biggest tracks from the past year". The box set has three discs with a total of sixty-three songs by various artists.
An average of 5.3 million people tuned in to the ceremony on ITV, according to overnight ratings – rising to 5.8 million when ITV+1 viewers are added in.