Carefree allowance – Newspaper Kommersant No. 26 (7471) of 02/13/2023

The 43rd BRIT Awards took place at London’s O2 Arena. The nominations were for works released between December 10, 2021 and December 9, 2022. Singer Harry Styles and Wet Leg were the leaders in the number of awards received. Tells Igor Gavrilov.

The names of some of the BRIT Awards winners were known even before the ceremony. So, in the Rising Star category, the female R’n’B trio Flo won, which has not even released its debut album yet. Like last year, the TikTok platform was actively involved in identifying the winners of the BRIT Awards. It was popularly voted on in four categories focused on popular music genres: “Best Alternative / Rock Artist”, “Best Dance Artist”, “Best Hip-Hop / Grime / Rap Artist” and “Best R’n’B -artist”. Americans cannot yet afford to give so many rights to a simple listener: Grammys are awarded by academic specialists.

One of the recent innovations is the abolition of gender differences between nominees: now BRIT Awards are awarded not to “singers” and “singers”, but to “artists”. However, this still did not affect the essence of the matter.

When the names of the nominees were announced in January, it turned out that only men were present in the Artist of the Year category. The best among them was Harry Styles. And he also became the leader in the number of awards: out of four possible statuettes, he took four.

Stiles is celebrating for the second week now. At the Grammy Awards, he received awards in the nominations “Album of the Year” and “Best Pop Album with Vocal”. The album “Harry’s House” and the global hit “As It Was” made him the most popular artist on the planet, and at the BRIT Awards it was noticeable that this popularity, earned by hard work, first in the One Direction group, and then during the solo career, crushed 29 year old singer.

He doesn’t just write popular songs. On today’s stage, he represents the good old “norm” – gender, image, performance. He is normal in the same way that David Bowie was normal. They both allowed themselves shocking behavior both on stage and off it, both put on women’s dresses and, in principle, tried on different images. But the image and preferences in their personal lives have never overshadowed their musical talent. Their songs are perfectly perceived even without a video sequence. Plus, they’re both gentlemen. Each time, entering the stage of the current BRIT Awards, Harry Styles found unbanal words of gratitude to people who were really valuable to him, and not to abstract “family” and “label”.

Stiles thanked his mom, not just “for all the good things”, but because she once sent him to the X-Factor show, which launched the singer’s career.

He also didn’t forget his One Direction comrades. Their solo careers aren’t as bright as Styles’ winning streak yet.

The entire BRIT Awards looked like a pretentious and gaudy frame for his triumph. Not a single artist from the older generation of stars has ever performed on stage. None of those who could attract an audience over 30 to the screens sang and presented awards at O2. Among the presenters, however, were foreign film actors Salma Hayek and Stanley Tucci, but it was obvious that they were invited as part of some corporate offsets or advertising contracts of the platforms on which the ceremony was broadcast. The obsessive presence of country singer Shania Twayne, who is experiencing a restart of her career and looms at all major social events, caused surprise and intrusive presence. Of the entire galaxy of “adult” artists, it was she who was called to the BRIT Awards, and not, for example, Depeche Mode, whose upcoming new album is discussed by all music lovers of the older generation, or even Elton John, who released a fairly successful song with Britney Spears last year.

The 2023 BRIT Awards left the feeling that the award has finally lost any social meaning.

In none of the speeches of the laureates, in none of the monologues of the presenter Mo Gilligan, there was even a hint that all these brightly dressed persons exist in a real complex world and that people who are going through a difficult time of their lives are listening to the songs sounding from the stage.

Music awards have not been used as a platform for a long time, the producers of the ceremonies seem to have hammered into the briefs of these spectacles the installation on the absence of any political agenda. COVID-19, which could not be dismissed a year ago, is also a thing of the past, and you can focus on pure entertainment – but, God forbid, an ambiguous joke will sound or one of the artists will say something serious. Togo and look hurt someone’s feelings.

One of the central characters of the BRIT Awards ceremony was the singer Sam Ryder, who, by his very presence, constantly reminded that Britain is hosting Eurovision this year. It was Sam Ryder’s second place at last year’s competition in Turin that provided the country with the status of the host of the next competition: Ukraine, which won, cannot accept it now for objective reasons. And now the BRIT Awards ceremony has taken place, which is increasingly reminiscent of Eurovision. Moe Gilligan’s duty jokes; Sam Smith, now looking like Udo Dirkschneider; Lizzo with dancers who will be offended in full force if at least a hint of their “non-standard” forms; outfits of Flo members as if from “our” 1990s; David Guetta, feigning mixing tracks while performing a cover of the 1998 Italian smash hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”, BRIT Awards slides into some kind of completely provincial format, losing even Eurovision, which has sincere emotions and real numbers -masterpieces. And Depeche Mode that same evening performed as guests at a song contest in San Remo, Italy. They were probably more needed there than at home.