Brit Awards 2017
Brit Awards 2017
February 22, 2017
February 22, 2017
London
London
The 2017 Brit Awards was held on 22 February 2017 and was the 37th edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards.[1] The awards ceremony were held at The O2 in London.[1] Emma Willis hosted the The BRITs Are Coming, the launch show to reveal this year's nominees which was broadcast live for the first time, on 14 January 2017. Robbie Williams was given the Brits Icon Award the previous November at The Troxy Theatre in London. The late Zaha Hadid designed the Brit Award statuette that was to be given to the winners.[2]
On 13 January 2017 it was confirmed that YouTube star Caspar Lee would be the BRITs Digital Presenter. Singer Michael Bublé was set to host but later pulled out on 18 January 2017 due to his son battling liver cancer and is "determined to focus on his son's recovery". On 31 January 2017, it was confirmed that Dermot O'Leary and Emma Willis would present the ceremony, replacing Bublé.[3] Alice Levine, Clara Amfo and Laura Jackson covered the goss from Red Carpet and Backstage on ITV2.[4]
The ceremony included a tribute to the late George Michael, which was presented by former Wham! member Andrew Ridgeley alongside associated duo members Helen "Pepsi" DeMacque and Shirlie Holliman.[5] The lead vocalist of Coldplay, Chris Martin, sang in the tribute.[6][7]
Emma Louise Willis (née Griffiths; born 18 March 1976)[1] is a British television presenter and former model, best known for her television and radio work with Channel 5, BBC, ITV and Heart FM.[2][3][4]
Willis has presented Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother since 2013, and she also presented spin-off show Big Brother's Bit on the Side from its inception in 2011 until 2015. She has presented The Voice UK since 2014.
She hosts the Sunday breakfast show on Heart FM with Stephen Mulhern.
Sean Dermot Fintan O'Leary, Jr. (born 24 May 1973), better known as Dermot O'Leary, is a British-Irish broadcaster. Based in the UK, he is known as a television presenter for ITV and a radio presenter for BBC Radio 2.
O'Leary's radio career began when he worked as a disc jockey at Essex Radio, but he is best known for being the presenter of The X Factor on ITV, a position he held since 2007 with the exception of 2015, when he stepped down to pursue other ventures. He was replaced by Olly Murs and Caroline Flack.[1] He later returned as the host in 2016.
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995 and again from 2009 to 2012. He has also had commercial success as a solo artist.
Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early-to-mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch a solo career, in which all but one of his 11 studio albums have reached number one in the UK. Williams also released seven number-one singles.[1] On 15 July 2010, he rejoined Take That. The group's subsequent album Progress became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history[2] and the fastest-selling record of the century at the time.[3] Gary Barlow has since confirmed that Williams had left the band for a second time, although the departure was amicable and that Williams was welcome to rejoin the band in the future.[4]
He is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom, and in 2006 he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1.6 million tickets of his Close Encounters Tour in a single day.[5]
Williams has received a record eighteen Brit Awards—winning Best British Male four times, and two awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music and the 2016 Brits Icon for his "lasting impact on British culture", eight German ECHO Awards, and three MTV European Music Awards.[6] In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s". According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Williams has been certified for 19.5 million albums and 6.8 million singles in the UK as a solo artist.[7] Williams also topped the 2000–2010 UK airplay chart, racking up almost 50% more plays than the Sugababes at number 2. In 2014 he was awarded the freedom of his home town of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as having a tourist trail created and streets named in his honour.