Sandé storm

AND the award for most relieved winner of the BRITs goes to… Emeli Sandé. I’m told there was huge pressure on the singer to win Best Female in what many were calling the “weakest category” of the evening.

Emeli’s much-anticipated second album Long Live The Angels has failed to impact the world charts unlike her huge multi-million selling first record Our Version of Events.

Her debut went seven times Platinum in the UK alone, flogging over 2.3million copies. In comparison her follow up has so far sold less than a 10th of that while going Gold.

Label insiders claim missing out to Ellie Goulding or lesser-known nominees Anohni, Nao and Lianne La Havas would have virtually killed her latest PR campaign.

But my source said: “Winning Best Female was huge for Emeli. She really needed it after winning Best Female and Album in 2013.

“Going home emptyhanded would have been a disaster for her big comeback but the win helps cement her star status.” ADELE was infamously cut off halfway through her acceptance speech for Best Album in 2012 leading to a huge viewer backlash.

But BRITs bosses were desperate not to make the same mistake twice when the show started to run over schedule this year.

Tinie Tempah revealed he was originally supposed to present the Best International Female to an AWOL Beyoncé but was not needed.

My source added: “The show was over-running so the decision was made to clump all the international awards together as none of the acts were there to collect in person.”