Christopher BarrettBPI & BRIT Awards chief executive Geoff Taylor reflects on an inclusive, landmark night for the events industry.
“Our hope is that The BRITs 2021 with Mastercard showed the music industry at its best. It united global superstars with the breakthrough talent that is the future of British music, reflecting on a year when music has shown its power to help us navigate difficult times. The creativity of the performances lit up staging by Yinka Ilori and Es Devlin which, with its explosion of colour, was like a wake-up from the monochrome reality many of us have lived for the last 12 months.
“What was happening on stage felt particularly significant. Women artists won in eight of the 11 award categories, illustrating how the music industry has transformed to better reflect all the talent in our society. There was an inclusive feel to the show, including the additional BRITs trophies that winning artists could give to their own heroes, and the fact that the majority of the audience were key workers who have done so much to help the country get through the last year. I would like to thank the music labels who contributed to cover the costs of making that happen. Talking to guests, it seemed they were truly excited to be out enjoying live music once again, and it was particularly special to be part of the first live audience for music at The O2 arena in over a year. Finally, the BRITs being part of the ERP meant that we were gathering scientific data which should help ease the path to Government re-opening live music at scale as quickly as possible, which is so important to fans and to our artists.
”Along with the artists and their teams, I’d like to thank the BRITs Committee led by Co-Chairs Selina Webb and Rebecca Allen for their creative vision and direction, our exceptional producer Sally Wood and director Julia Knowles and of course our own BPI/BRITs organising team, led by music industry legend Maggie Crowe. They all went far beyond the call of duty to make this show happen despite unprecedented challenges. We could not have done it without our fantastic supportive partners in Mastercard, Amazon Music, ITV and AEG/The O2 Arena. This was also a partnership with Government, so we’re grateful to Oliver Dowden and his ERP team at DCMS for working with us to allow a live audience at the BRITs as safely as possible. I think we need a week off, then we can begin thinking about the next one!”