THE BRIT AWARDS 2020
It’s the 40th year of the BRIT Awards, so we can expect a certain amount of navel-gazing and nostalgia on this year’s live show. Plus, we fully expect Jack Whitehall, in his third turn as host of the event, to make some kind of reference to classic BRIT moments, most of them involving 1989’s presenters Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood. But it also looks like being a tense night with plenty of closely-fought categories. Lewis Capaldi and Dave have the joint highest number of nominations – four each – with Mabel and Stormzy getting three a piece.
IN CONTENTION
We’ve made our predictions in the big categories on the right of this page (and don’t be too harsh on us if we’re wrong). But we should also mention other big battles, like Best Group, with favourite Foals taking on Bastille, Bring Me The Horizon, Coldplay and D-block Europe, while Song Of The Year features the likes of AJ Tracey, Calvin Harris, Ed Sheeran, Mabel and Mark Ronson. Expect Lewis Capaldi to win Best New Artist, too, over Aitch, Dave, Mabel and Sam Fender.
IN PERFORMANCE
Along with those tasty fights for the coveted gongs, the show itself will feature a fine array of special performances, including Billie Eilish (singing her Bond theme tune perhaps?), BRITS Rising Star winner Celeste, Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi, Mabel and Stormzy. The producers have also made it clear that the artists get to decide every detail of their own routines, saying they are “letting the artists fully take the reins by encouraging them to create and curate performances unique to them”. That could mean some textbook BRITS mayhem. We hope so… There’s also a red-carpet show on ITV2, hosted by Clara Amfo and Alice Levine. HHHH