Adele was making a return to live performance at the Brit Awards, the U.K.’s leading music prizes
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
February 8, 2022, 9:01 PM
• 3 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleLONDON -- Adele was making a return to live performance Tuesday at the Brit Awards, weeks after she canceled a much-anticipated string of shows in Las Vegas.
The soulful singer has nominations in four categories at the U.K.’s leading music prizes -- including album of the year for “30” -- and also was scheduled to perform during the ceremony at London’s O2 Arena. It comes weeks after she canceled a Cesar's Palace residency at the last minute, citing delivery delays and coronavirus illness in her crew.
Adele won the first prize of the night, song of the year, for “Easy on Me.”
Saluting the other nominees, she said: “I can’t believe that a piano ballad won up against that many bangers.”
American teen star Olivia Rodrigo took the international song trophy for “Good 4 U.”
Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, who opened the show with a live performance, and British rappers Little Simz and Dave also have four nominations apiece, including artist and album of the year. Other multiple nominees include Sam Fender, Central Cee and David Guetta, while Taylor Swift will battle it out with Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X for international artist of the year.
In addition to Adele, there will be live performances from Dave, Sam Fender, Holly Humberstone, Liam Gallagher and Little Simz during the show, hosted by comedian Mo Gilligan.
Gilligan gave a shoutout to Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is caught up in a scandal over lockdown-breaching wine and cheese parties in his office during the pandemic.
“I know you like a party — Come down, man," Gilligan said. "I know you like a cheeseboard.”
The Brits is one of the few awards shows not to be canceled in the past two years because of the pandemic. The 2020 show took place weeks before Britain went into lockdown. Last year’s awards were held in May as a test run for the return of large live events with an audience of 4,000, including health care workers given free tickets.
Organizers have shaken up the awards in recent years in response to criticisms that they failed to reflect the diversity of British music and were slow to embrace the emergence of genres including home-grown British grime and hip-hop. In 2017, the academy of more than 1,000 music industry professionals that chooses Brits winners was expanded in an attempt to make it more gender balanced and diverse.
In November, organizers announced they were scrapping separate male and female artist categories for awards, including U.K. and international artist of the year. Organizers said the change would celebrate artists “solely for their music and work, rather than how they choose to identify or as others may see them.”
The 2022 ceremony also includes four new awards for different genres, decided by public vote: alternative/rock act; hip hop/grime/rap act; dance act and pop/R’n’B act.
British singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone took the rising star award, an accolade previously won by Adele and Florence + the Machine.
