Mumford and Sons, Emeli Sande, Adele and The Black Keys were among the winners at Wednesday night’s Brit Awards, with no real surprises among the various categories. The awards ceremony – hosted by comedian James Corden – featured performances from Robbie Williams, Muse, One Direction, Taylor Swift, Ben Howard and Justin Timberlake, who continued his music comeback by performing his new song ‘Mirrors’.
Scottish singer Emeli Sande capped off a fantastic year by bagging two awards – British female solo artist and Best Album for her breakthrough record Our Version of Events. One might imagine Sande will be hard-pressed to pick her personal highlight of the last twelve months, with her album outselling Adele’s 21 to become 2012’s biggest seller, not to mention critically-lauded performances at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.
Elsewhere, Mumford and Sons pipped Muse, The xx, One Direction and Alt-J to bag the prize for Best British Group and Ben Howard beat Plan B, Richard Hawley, Calvin Harris and Olly Murs to the gong for Best British Male.
Lana Del Rey thanked her management for turning her life into a “work of art” during her acceptance speech for Best International Female (oh please…), while Frank Ocean was victorious in the male category for the same award.
Rock n’ roll royalty Dave Grohl accepted the Best International Group award on behalf of the absent Black Keys, whose trophy cabinet is presumably looking rather full with this added to their recent haul at the Grammys and Adele added another Brit to her collection, this time for Best British Single for her James Bond theme ‘Skyfall’.
Selected winners from the 2013 Brit Awards
Best British Group
Mumford and Sons
Best British Album
Emeli Sande 'Our Version of Events'
Best British Single
Adele 'Skyfall'
Best British Female
Emeli Sande
British British Male
Ben Howard
British Breakthrough
Ben Howard
Best Live Act
Coldplay
Best International Group
The Black Keys
Best International Male
Frank Ocean
Best International Female
Lana Del Rey
