Artists signed to independent labels won five gongs at the BRIT Awards last night – while Universal dominated in comparison to the two other major labels.
Four awards went to Adele, signed to XL/Beggars outside of the US and South America, who received British Female Artist, British Single, Album Of The Year and the BRITs Global Success Awards.
The other independently-signed victor was Bjork (pictured), who picked up International Female Solo Artist. Her last album, Vulnicura, is signed to One Little Indian in the UK.
Although Tame Impala are signed to a label many feel is ‘independent’ in Australia, Modular Recordings, its parent company is UMG.
The Aussie band, who release through Fiction in the UK, won International Group at the ceremony.
Including Tame Impala, Universal won five BRITs in all – compared to just one each for Sony and Warner, neither of whom saw any of their new artists collect a trophy.
UMG’s wins included British Breakthrough Act (Catfish & The Bottlemen), British Male Solo Artist (James Bay), International Male Solo Artist (Justin Bieber) and the Critics’ Choice Award for Jack Garratt, who told the media it was a “shame” that artists such as Stormzy and Krept & Konan hadn’t been nominated.
BRIT Awards 2016 – The Winners
- British Male Solo Artist – JAMES BAY (Republic/Virgin EMI)
- British Group – COLDPLAY (Parlophone/Atlantic)
- International Female Solo Artist – BJÖRK (One Little Indian)
- British Female Artist – ADELE (XL/Beggars)
- BRITs Global Success Award (Identified by the global success of British acts of their latest project/album. Sales achieved in the period 1 January 2015-31 December 2015) – ADELE (XL/Beggars)
- International Male Solo Artist – JUSTIN BIEBER (Def Jam / Virgin EMI)
- British Single (Top ten British singles based on overall sales success in the calendar year are automatically nominated. Supported by Capital FM and Google Play) – ADELE ‘HELLO’ (XL/Beggars)
- International Group – TAME IMPALA (Modular/Fiction Records/Universal Music)
- British Breakthrough Act (Top 5 selected by Voting Academy. Winner identified by public vote promoted by brits.co.uk and BBC Radio 1) – CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN (Island Records)
- British Artist Video of the Year (Top 10 identified by YouTube views. Public vote online to identify shortlist of 5. Winner identified during live social vote during the show) – ONE DIRECTION (Syco/Sony Music)
- MasterCard British Album of The Year (supported by The Sun Bizarre column) – ADELE ’25’ (XL/Beggars)
- Critics’ Choice – JACK GARRATT (presented previously – Island Records)
- British Producer Of The Year – CHARLIE ANDREW (presented previously)
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