Here we have "The BRIT Awards 2020", a very recent awards show as this one is not even a month old. It ran for slightly over 100 minutes (without commercials) and honored the best from the music industry, most of all the British conributors. This surprised me a bit because the title sounds so general that it could also include film references, but it does not. Oh well, Kiefer Sutherland presented an award. The host here was comedian Jack Whitehall. Probably personal taste, but I did not like him too much. He was a presenter last year and this would have been enough. His line delivery seemed pretty stale and try hard, for example the Guardiola reference, but others too, and his running gag about how he was crushing on one big Black singer in the audience (was it the one he wants to be Britain's queen?) became repetitive long before he stopped it. Also how he clashes with Harry Styles for her attention. The latter I find pretty embarrassing, maybe it was because of that that I did not like it too much. So next year, somebody else please and not Whitehall again. As for the actual awards that were give out, I guess they were mostly fine. I do not have a strong connection with (British) music these days, at least commercially successful music, but there weren't too many I strongly disagreed with. Maybe Lewis Capaldi got slightly too much attention and his acceptance speeches were also fairly embarrassing and not as funny as he intended to. Clearly he staged it and seems to be getting away with that normal guy routine like when he lied about his bank account. But that was not during the Brit Awards, I just find it baffling how people do not even question his comments. And it's always cringeworthy when they call somebody (him during this show) a "national treasure". Anyway, let's not drift any further away. Overall, the love was shared among many artists and that is alright. No real domination. They renamed some categories by the way and left other categories out, which is alright too because it kept the show under 2 hours. And they showed all the categories I believe, or almost all (was British producer on?), bit still they had way too much music. Such a common problem that the majority of music award shows these days feel like concerts really and the awards never seem to be at the center of it. The best example is how this started with Mabel's song (she was alright) and ended with a long Rod Stewart performance (he was truly bland). Ron Wood sang with him there and he was fairly present before that too, but not really for artistic reasons.
The big non-British inclusion here was Billie Eilish. She not only won a big award, no surprise after her Grammys triumph, but also showed us the new Bond song, in a collaboration with Hans Zimmer and Johnny Marr (The Smiths). Should have gotten Morrissey instead. Oh well, her brother was around too as always. He's more annoying than Billie I suppose, although she has not exactly been growing on me either. She sometimes sings pretty well, but with her nails and outfits, she also feels a lot style over substance and she is definitely not revvolutionizing the music industry now the way some people act as if she does. I am a huge Bond fan by the way, but right now I really don't like her number at all, one of my least favorite Bond songs ever. I will see if it maybe changes when Craig's final turn happens, sadly it's still gonna take a long time due to the delay. Anyway, what I actually wanted to say is that I really liked her performance of "Yesterday" at the Oscars, but her number here at the Brits did very little for me. Oh well I should not talk any further about her. She is too overexposed anyway already. Back to the host Whitehall, one thing I forgot is that he was also very cringeworthy from the beginning: I mean take that moment when he weasr that British flag dress that Geri Halliwell made popular over 20 years ago. It was supposed to be funny (with his breast hair too), it was supposed to be British, but all it ended up being was embarrassing. Not sure if the Spice Girls were there this time, but I am sure they saw it and were pretty embarrassed, even if they probably would not admit it. Okay, as for the winners, or i should say the ones I have not mentioned already: Dave, Stormzy, Celeste and Foals. Ever heard any of thee names? If not, don't worry. neither have I and will probably forget them really quickly too again. It's not (y)our loss. As a whole, this awards show was not a failure, but it also did not become half as interesting as it aspired to be and maybe even actually thought it was. I listed most of the reasons before that. Judging from the winners (and nominations) here, British music seems to be far from its best at this point. However, if you dig deep enough, you will find some quality stuff I am sure. Back to the event at hand: Even if you like awards shows (and I sure do), then it may be better to skip this one here. It's simply not good enough and the fact that it is still better than certain other music awards shows that run for twice the duration and include (more than) two hours of music really shows you that these music awards shows are not at a good place right now. If there's 3 writers, I'd expect a better outcome than here. Maybe it as alright if you were actually there and saw it live, but not on the screen. Also really prolific awards show director Hamish Hamilton was in charge behind the camera here. I don't know, maybe it's time for new blood. This one's not worth it and improvement does not really seem to be near. Watch something else instead as this one here cannot make you too sad that it is going to be another year until the next BRIT Awards edition.
The big non-British inclusion here was Billie Eilish. She not only won a big award, no surprise after her Grammys triumph, but also showed us the new Bond song, in a collaboration with Hans Zimmer and Johnny Marr (The Smiths). Should have gotten Morrissey instead. Oh well, her brother was around too as always. He's more annoying than Billie I suppose, although she has not exactly been growing on me either. She sometimes sings pretty well, but with her nails and outfits, she also feels a lot style over substance and she is definitely not revvolutionizing the music industry now the way some people act as if she does. I am a huge Bond fan by the way, but right now I really don't like her number at all, one of my least favorite Bond songs ever. I will see if it maybe changes when Craig's final turn happens, sadly it's still gonna take a long time due to the delay. Anyway, what I actually wanted to say is that I really liked her performance of "Yesterday" at the Oscars, but her number here at the Brits did very little for me. Oh well I should not talk any further about her. She is too overexposed anyway already. Back to the host Whitehall, one thing I forgot is that he was also very cringeworthy from the beginning: I mean take that moment when he weasr that British flag dress that Geri Halliwell made popular over 20 years ago. It was supposed to be funny (with his breast hair too), it was supposed to be British, but all it ended up being was embarrassing. Not sure if the Spice Girls were there this time, but I am sure they saw it and were pretty embarrassed, even if they probably would not admit it. Okay, as for the winners, or i should say the ones I have not mentioned already: Dave, Stormzy, Celeste and Foals. Ever heard any of thee names? If not, don't worry. neither have I and will probably forget them really quickly too again. It's not (y)our loss. As a whole, this awards show was not a failure, but it also did not become half as interesting as it aspired to be and maybe even actually thought it was. I listed most of the reasons before that. Judging from the winners (and nominations) here, British music seems to be far from its best at this point. However, if you dig deep enough, you will find some quality stuff I am sure. Back to the event at hand: Even if you like awards shows (and I sure do), then it may be better to skip this one here. It's simply not good enough and the fact that it is still better than certain other music awards shows that run for twice the duration and include (more than) two hours of music really shows you that these music awards shows are not at a good place right now. If there's 3 writers, I'd expect a better outcome than here. Maybe it as alright if you were actually there and saw it live, but not on the screen. Also really prolific awards show director Hamish Hamilton was in charge behind the camera here. I don't know, maybe it's time for new blood. This one's not worth it and improvement does not really seem to be near. Watch something else instead as this one here cannot make you too sad that it is going to be another year until the next BRIT Awards edition.