News The Brits Makeover: Make or Break

The Brits – the one night of the year where celebrities are allowed – nay encouraged – to get unceremoniously pissed, initiate fights with their musical rivals, fluff their lines and battle for awards, all of which is broadcast live as entertainment for the general public to ingest on their TV screens. Yet as The Brits reaches its 31st year, the organisers have decided to give the ceremony a serious reshuffle by shaking up the music ceremony’s traditional format.

Last year’s extravagant 30th anniversary celebrations included additional awards to celebrate the British music scene since The Brits’ inception. After 2010’s further proof that Sam Fox’s presenting skills still haven’t improved since her disastrous stint as a host in 1989, and host Peter Kay keeping celebrity egos in check and calling Liam Gallagher a knobhead, this year’s celebrations are supposedly all about focusing on the music and performances, rather than insulting the ceremony’s stars.

Not only are The Brits changing venue from Earl’s Court, the awards’ home for the last 11 years, to the 02 Arena, but there has also been a major restructure of the way the voting academy works. Made up of 1000 industry experts, the old system chose to favour the opinions of music critics, executives and publishers over those of the general public who were actually buying the music. For the first time the focus is also falling on artists, with last year’s winners earning a place on the panel. This year will see the likes of Lady Gaga, JLS and Florence Welch cast their votes, with the aim of reflecting a truer representation of the music and talent (or lack of) of the artists nominated, rather than relying on the judgement of the industry moneymakers.

The likes of Robbie Williams, who already has 15 Brit Awards gathering dust, will have a slightly different looking statue to add to his collection should Take That win this year’s Brits for Best Group or Best Album as this year’s statues have been redesigned by British style queen Vivienne Westwood. Gone are the gold statues of old, and along with the bizarre, grammatically-incorrect slogan of “Stop! Climate change” carved into the award’s base, in their place are bronze figures draped with a vibrant British flag and Westwood’s signature crowns adorned on their helmets.

But perhaps the Brit Award’s biggest change of all is the decision to scrap the Outstanding Achievement Award. Instead of the closing with a medley performance from previous winners such as Pet Show Boys, Oasis or the Spice Girls, this year’s ceremony will end with a new award – the Mastercard British Album of the Year. Just like Sunday night’s BAFTAs the ceremony will feature five clips of each album throughout the show to build the tension, before announcing whether Tinie Tempah, Take That, Mumford And Sons, Plan B or Mercury Prize winners The XX have nabbed the award.

With James Corden hosting the event, and bearing in mind that the comedian called Ricky Gervais’ highly frowned-upon Golden Globes speech “incredible”, the organisers will no doubt be grilling Corden on the dos and don’ts of his hosting presentation as I type. Meanwhile it will be interesting to see if this year’s changes bring about the increase in credibility and focus on music that the Brit Academy are hoping for, or whether the typical Brits spirit of boozing and celeb-bashing will prevail.