2011 BRIT Awards highlights

February 18, 2011

On Tuesday, the were presented from  in London, England. This is the first time that the awards ceremony has been hosted from this venue; previously, the regular location for the show was the, which is also located in London.

The, presented by the , is an annual ceremony that awards music artists for excellence in music. The BRIT Awards started in 1980; this year's event is the 31st BRIT Awards. broadcasted this year's programme from 2000-2200 UTC, with British actor and presenter hosting it.

The ITV1 programme contained performances from various artists, many of which had been nominated for BRIT Awards. The performers and the performances are displayed below but are not in chronological order. They are as follows:
 * – Someone Like You
 * – Timshel
 * , Eric Turner and – '' / ' / '
 * – Ready To Start
 * and – 
 * , Eric Turner and – '' / ' / '
 * – Ready To Start
 * and – 

British  was nominated for most awards than any other artist, with 'Best British Album' and 'Best British Male' included amongst his four nominations. He was given two BRIT awards - one for 'Best British Single', which was , and the second for 'Best British Breakthrough Act'. Upon receiving what would turn out to be his first award of two, Tinie Tempah proclaimed: "I want to big up God and my family for sticking by me when times are hard." Canadian group  were also successful in achieving two BRIT Awards, one for 'Best International Group' and the other for 'Best International Album'; their album is entitled .

presented an award to British group  for 'Best British Group', the first time the group have ever achieved such an award. While the group received the award, member looked at, who had recently rejoined Take That, and said: "Can I say thanks for coming back mate. Appreciate it. It's a real pleasure for the five of us to be up here." The group had a second nomination for 'Best British Album' but were unsuccessful in winning the award.

, a member of the group, received one BRIT Award for 'Best International Male'. In his acceptance speech, he commented: "I'm so excited. Thank you so much for this honour. Such a pleasant surprise." Cee Lo was also nominated for 'Best International Album' but failed to achieve the award.

, lead singer of English group, humourously commented that "[i]t's good to see the British music industry still has enough money for a good booze up" before giving the award for 'Best British Album' to  for their album, entitled. Marcus Mumford, of the group, said that "[t]his is very bizarre, very strange. Thank you very much indeed. We are very honoured, very humbled."

and awarded the 'Critics' Choice' to English singer-songwriter. Backstage, Jessie J - who is currently at number one in the with her song, featuring American rapper  - remarked that "[p]op stands for popular. I want to be a pop icon and take Britain across the world."

, another British rapper, achieved the award for 'Best British Male'. "There's a lot of people I could be thanking right now, I wanna thank them all together," he said during his acceptance speech. Having expressed thanks to various family members, friends, his record labels and the people he had worked with, he concluded his speech with the line: "Thank you, everybody. That's all."

Earlier in February 2011, was given the BRIT Award for 'Best British Producer' by, a member of the group ; Dravs is co-producing a fifth album for the group at present. Dravs was nominated for his work in relation to Arcade Fire album The Suburbs and Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More. "You could hear it in the lyrics and in the commitment in the demos," he commented. "I really wanted to get involved and see if I could help make the record."

During the BRIT Awards programme on Tuesday, presented the 'Best International Female', which was won by. The Barbadian pop and R&B singer exclaimed during her acceptance speech: "Britain, I love you! This is so exciting. I want to thank everybody at my label, [...] all my fans here. You guys are the best! I love you so much. This is...this is big. It doesn't get much bigger than the BRITs, so I love you guys. Thank you so much. This means a lot. I'm the !"

The award for 'Best International Breakthrough Act' was given to Justin Bieber, a Canadian /  singer. Upon accepting the award, Bieber commented: "I want to thank all my fans over here. You guys are amazing. I want to thank the label over here". was subsequently awarded 'Best British Female'. After being presented with the award by, Marling said: "Thank you. My name's Laura and there you go, mum. That's for you and thank you very much to Adam and Laura and everyone at . This is really weird."

Shortly after the broadcast of the main programme, performances became available to purchase via. The will receive all of the downloads' profits as a donation.

Below, all of the recipients of the awards on Tuesday night are available to view in a list, which is not presented in chronological order.
 * Best British Male – 
 * Best British Female – 
 * Best British Group – 
 * Best British Single –  - 
 * Best British Album –  - 
 * Best British Producer – 
 * Best British Breakthrough Act – Tinie Tempah
 * Best International Male – 
 * Best International Female – 
 * Best International Group – 
 * Best International Album – Arcade Fire – 
 * Best International Breakthrough Act – Justin Bieber
 * Critics' Choice - 

Below is an image gallery displaying library photographs of some of the acts who appeared at the BRIT Awards 2011:

On Wednesday, the news emerged that the BRIT Awards 2011 gained approximately 4.8 million viewers, the smallest viewing figures the show has experienced for five years. The ratings of the ceremony were beaten by the last episode of in the series, broadcast on Channel 4 from 2100–2200 UTC on Tuesday; the viewing figures stood at approximately 6.5 million viewers. , broadcast on, also attracted more viewers than the BRIT Awards 2011. The programme, which was shown from 2000-2100 UTC, received approximately 5.8 million viewers.