Arctic Monkeys And David Bowie Clean Up At 2014 Brit Awards

February 20, 2014

The 2014 Brit Awards took place at London’s O2 Arena today and Arctic Monkeys, Ellie Goulding and David Bowie cleaned up big in the main categories, winning Best Group, Best Solo Female and Best Solo Male respectively.

Bowie put the icing on the cake of his surprise comeback, taking out the award for Best Male following the success of The Next Day, exactly 30 years after he last won the category. At 67, he’s also now the oldest artist to ever receive a Brit, with none of his competition – Jake Bugg, John Newman, James Blake and Tom Odell – having been born when he last received the nod in 1984.

Sheffield rockers Arctic Monkeys were awarded Best Group and Album Of The Year for their slinky fifth studio effort AM, beating out One Direction, with frontman Alex Turner saying, “There’s that fifteen quid we put on One Direction to win down the drain,” while accepting the nod. The quartet also opened the show with a performance of single R U Mine.

Singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding won Best Female, despite having not released an album in the past 12 months. Her massive 2012 record Halcyon recently made it to number 1 on the charts, 65 weeks after its release, following the success of single Burn.

Kiwi teen dream Lorde has taken out the International Female award, beating Katy Perry, Janelle Monáe, Pink and Lady Gaga. She thanked her fellow nominees in her acceptance speech, saying, “Thank you so much, first of all, to the strong, talented, inspiring women in this category because it’s amazing to have competition that healthy.”

Lorde also performed a version of her breakthrough hit Royals with electronic duo Disclosure. The duo were up for four awards, including Best Group, Album and Single, but won none.

Beyoncé performed her first ever televised version of song XO, while Bruno Mars treated the crowd to his latest single Treasure and took out the Best International Male award, which he also won in 2012. Daft Punk were awarded Best International Group.

WATCH: Lorde and Disclosure – Royals/White Noise

http://youtu.be/HiU119YgQGA

WATCH: Arctic Monkeys – R U Mine

http://youtu.be/8L6zby6VktE

Brit Awards 2014 Winners

British Male Solo Artist
David Bowie

British Female Solo Artist
Ellie Goulding

British Group
Arctic Monkeys

British Breakthrough Act
Bastille

British Single of the Year
Rudimental – Waiting All Night

Critics’ Choice
Sam Smith

British Global Success
One Direction