Photo: WENN
The first ever BBC Music Awards took place last night. Judging by the scarcity of actual awards, and fairly uninspired list of nominees, we can't imagine they'll be rivalling the Grammys in terms of prestige any time soon. The thing is though, perhaps a relative shortage of self-congratulatory smugness is a good thing?
For one thing, it allowed for a supremely impressive line-up of live music. Which, let's face it, is the reason anyone tunes in to these things. Every artist sang live, and the atmosphere inside Earl's Court was one of unadulterated jubilation. Here are five things we learned.
1. Nobody wants to be on the same bill as One Direction
Take That, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran... They're all pretty popular right? Put them next to One Direction when Fearne Cotton runs through the night's line-up though, and you'd think they were the fifth runners up of BBC Introducing 2003. Having now experienced their fans' screams firsthand, we suspect the sound would be more subdued if a fire engulfed the building.
2. Olly Murs is the BBC's resident music expert
Is he blackmailing someone from the BBC? In almost every British Artist Of The Year VT, during which each nominated artist was discussed by music experts, Murs popped up to offer his insightful comments on the likes of Royal Blood, David Bowie and Jungle. On Elbow: "What an amazing band they are. One of the best by a mile, yeah." We found ourselves wanting to shout, "He doesn't even go here."
3. Ed Sheeran is very polite
From the opening shot of him backstage having a nice chat with George Ezra, to his acceptance speech for British Artist Of The Year, during which he thanked the person who had made the award statue, Ed Sheeran really out-niced himself last night. He even managed to remain patient when the crowd tried and failed, every time, to sing along to the "oh oh oh" bits of 'Sing'.
4. Pharrell can really talk
Of the few awards the BBC announced on the night, Pharrell won two. It's good of them to recognise undiscovered talent. To accept his awards, the singer appeared "live" via videolink alongside Gwen Stefani. We are sceptical it was actually live, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, the man can really go on. We found ourselves wishing they'd do what the Oscars do, and start playing music and fading his mic out when he's gone on for too long.
5. Greg James really, really likes dressing up as female pop stars
Remember when Greg James dressed up as Taylor Swift and the entire joke was that he was dressed in drag? It was super funny. Remember when he did it that other time? And then that other time. Oh and then *cue fade out*.
