Emeli Sande and Ben Howard led the pack at the BRIT Awards 2013 last night (20.02.13), taking home two awards each
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Scottish singer Sande triumphed by scooping the British Female Solo Artist and British Album of the Year trophies for her debut, Our Version of Events, at the event, held at the O2.
Accepting her award for British Female Solo Artist – presented by Taylor Swift – Sande said: “Wow, this is amazing, this is incredible, I’m so happy to win this.
“I was up against so many wonderful artists. “Thank you to my wonderful family, my mum, dad, my wonderful husband. Thank you to everyone who believed in me.”
Picking up Best Album later in the night, she added: “I think I’m a very lucky pop star. This is an album I wrote because I didn’t have the strength to say these things. The fact that people have connected with these songs doesn’t make me feel so lonely.
“This is a dream really. Thank you for this award and thank you for this year.”
Meanwhile, Howard was the surprise winner of the night, taking home British Male Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act.
Accepting the Breakthrough award – voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 1 – he said: “I’m not very good at speeches. I’m also not very good at dancing.”
Speaking at the Winner’s press conference a little later, he added: “I was a little shell shocked to win. This is definitely the cherry on the cake.
“The year had ended, the album had been so much more successful than we’d ever thought, to be nominated for the BRITs in the first place was amazing, and to actually come away with these two is… ‘bizarre’, I think, is the best way to describe it.”
One Direction debuted their new charity single One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks) at the show, and group lothario Harry Styles couldn’t escape a little fun being poked at him.
Sharon Osbourne – who co-presented Best International Female – said: “Where is that little Harry wizard boy? Does he have his magic stick with him? That’s his willy!”
She then presented Lana Del Rey with the trophy, her second consecutive year of winning it.
Speaking at the Winner’s press conference, she said: “I do live here and I did write the record here, so it’s exciting to win.
“It’s the best thing I’ve been able to do in my life. I’ve talked to the people who have listened to the music and they’ve really been supportive and helped me.”
Styles also had to suffer through watching his ex-girlfriend, Taylor Swift, perform I Knew You Were Trouble at the awards – a song widely believed to be about him. Capping off his night One Direction lost out in the Best British Group category to Mumford and Sons.
Accepting their gong, lead singer Marcus Mumford said: “Thank you very much indeed, we weren’t really expecting that.
“We haven’t ever really taken the opportunity to thank everyone who comes to our gigs. I mean we’re in a category with Muse and One Direction. We love being British and we love going round the world and spreading British music.”
All was not lost however, and One Direction eventually triumphed, winning the special BRITs Global Success Award.
Full list of winners at the official site
