| Brit Awards 2011 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Date | 15 February 2011 | |||
| Venue | The O2 Arena | |||
| Hosted by | James Corden | |||
| Most awards | Tinie Tempah andArcade Fire (2) | |||
| Most nominations | Tinie Tempah (4) | |||
| Television/radio coverage | ||||
| Network | ITV | |||
| Viewership | 4.8 million[1] | |||
| ||||
Brit Awards 2011 was the 31st edition of theBritish Phonographic Industry's annual pop music show, theBrit Awards. The awards ceremony was held on Tuesday 15 February 2011[2]atThe O2 Arena in London for the first time in its history, moving from the original venue ofEarls Court, also in London.[3] The ceremony was hosted byJames Corden.[4][5] Leading the nominations wasTinie Tempah with four nominations. The artists with the most awards won wereTinie Tempah andArcade Fire, with two wins each.[6][7][8] The 2011 awards were billed as a reboot of the Brit Awards format featuring a different venue, a new award statuette designed byVivienne Westwood and a greater emphasis placed on music, particularly live performances. Whilst the re-working of the show was generally well received,[9] the TV audience was the lowest for five years,[10] with an average viewership of 4.8 million viewers peaking at 5.9 million.
| Artist(s) | Song(s) | UK Singles Chart reaction | UK Albums Chart reaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Take That | "Kidz" | 31 (+168) | Progress – 10 (non-mover) |
| Adele | "Someone Like You" | 1 (+46) | 21 – 1 (non-mover) 19 – 4 (+2) |
| Rihanna | "Only Girl (In the World)" "S&M" "What's My Name" | 25 (+5) 6 (+5) 20 (−1) | Loud – 3 (non-mover) |
| Mumford & Sons | "Timshel" | did not chart | Sigh No More – 2 (+13) |
| Plan B | "She Said" "Prayin'" | 72 (debut)[A] | The Defamation of Strickland Banks – 7 (+17) |
| Arcade Fire | "Ready to Start" | did not chart | The Suburbs – 14 (+38) |
| Tinie Tempah Eric Turner Labrinth | "Written in the Stars" "Miami 2 Ibiza" "Pass Out" | 40 (debut)[A] | Disc-Overy – 6 (+19) |
| CeeLo Green Paloma Faith | "Forget You" | 19 (+16) | The Lady Killer – 11 (+7) |
.jpg)
| Nominations | Artist |
|---|---|
| 4 | Tinie Tempah |
| 3 (3) | Mumford & Sons |
| Plan B | |
| The xx | |
| 2 (9) | Arcade Fire |
| CeeLo Green | |
| Cheryl | |
| Ellie Goulding | |
| Eminem | |
| Katy Perry | |
| Kings of Leon | |
| Rumer | |
| Take That |
| Awards | Artist |
|---|---|
| 2 (2) | Arcade Fire |
| Tinie Tempah |
Adele performed her song "Someone Like You" at the ceremony with only a piano accompanying her. Her emotional performance was received with a standing ovation at theO2 Arena and the video received millions of hits on YouTube within days. The performance launched "Someone Like You" 46 spots up the UK charts to number one, and in the process, made Adele the first artist in the UK sinceThe Beatles to have two top-five singles and two top-five albums at the same time.
James Corden made jokes throughout the ceremony which drew criticism on social networking siteTwitter. A targeted example was talking to acts in between awards when he came acrossJustin Bieber. In his trademark humour, Corden said to Bieber "You smell amazing! How old are you?". A bemused Bieber replied "thanks". Similarly, afterPlan B's performance of his hit "Prayin'" finished with a man on fire, Corden described it as a really violent episode ofPorridge and remarked "is Justin Bieber OK? The amount of hair products that boy uses. He could have gone up in flames." As the man on fire took to the stage during Plan B's performance, some of the crowd showed their disapproval and booed.