‘Would anybody like to see me fight Liam?’
Never mind the actual awards, the BRITs are most famous for turfing up some of the most controversial – and hilarious – entertainment moments each year.
Ahead of the first-ever gender-neutral BRITS taking place tonight, which you can watch at 8pm on ITV or livestream on YouTube, here are some of the greatest and most memorable BRIT Awards moments ever.
When Robbie Williams challenged Liam Gallagher to a fight
So mature. Rivalries were rife in the music industry throughout the late nineties and early naughties.
It was seen as cool to have actual enemies, and one of the biggest rivalries of all – other than between actual brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher – was between Liam Gallagher and Robbie Williams.
In 2000, Robbie took to the BRITs stage and publicly requested a dual. £100,000 grand would be put on the table by both men – and the winner would take the lot.
Only it turned out Liam wasn’t even in the building that night so no punch up was even possible – big words, Robbie, big words…
Geri’s iconic Union Jack dress, 1997
It was the height of Girl Power, the Spice Girls’ very own version of feminism, and the skimpy Union Jack dress was more than just a fashion statement.
1997 also earmarked the early days of Tony Blair’s New Labour government, and the national mood was excited, as we waited to see what changes Blair could bring after years of Tory rule.
In one loud dress, Geri summed up how we were all hoping for a better future.
Madonna falling down stairs in 2015
The BRITs have a history of wardrobe mishaps, but surely the most mortifying has to be Madonna’s.
Dramatically wearing a black gothic cape, she ascended some stairs, and the plan was for the cape to be pulled off by the legend’s backing dancers and leave her standing at the top.
However, the cape didn’t detach properly and Madonna was dragged back down backwards with it, landing upside down on the floor. You can see the moment in the video above from one minute in.
Stormzy’s Grenfell tribute in 2018
The UK rapper got very political following the Grenfell Tower tragedy with a dramatic mash-up on the BRITs stage where he called for the government to do more.
“Theresa May, where’s that money for Grenfell? What, you thought we forgot about Grenfell?… You should do some jail time, you should pay for damages,” he rapped from the stage.
The performance has gone down as one of the most important performances ever from the awards show, and testament to how the BRITs aren’t just for stupid feuds – they can convey important socio-political messages too.
Adele middle-fingering from the podium in 2012
Imagine winning a BRIT and then waiting patiently for the crowd to finish cheering in adoration, and then saying one sentence, and then being told you need to wrap it up.
Poor Adele – as soon as the reality that she’d won Best British album sunk in, she was booted back off stage again. But she didn’t take it lying down, she gave BRITs bosses the middle finger as she left the stage.
And Blur who followed her acceptance speech walked on, bang on time, to a chorus of boos!
Jarvis Cocker mooning Michael Jackson in 1996
Michael Jackson’s Earth Song performance at the 1996 awards is one of the most controversial of all time.
Flailing about in some fake wind, the choreography for the song positioned Jackson as a God-like being, and many were triggered by his audacity.
One angered audience member was Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker, who responded to the Thriller singer by storming the stage and showing Jackson his bare arse while he was still singing. Head to 4.45 for the rather unforgettable moment.
Alex Turner’s cringey rock ‘n’ roll speech in 2014
The Arctic Monkeys frontman later claimed this bizarre speech was in protest to award ceremonies in general.
On the night that the band won Album of the Year, the four-piece took to the stage and Alex started ranting for two minutes about the “cyclical nature of the universe in which” rock ‘n’ roll exists.
His bandmates looked awkward and occasionally whispered stuff to one another as he pranced around spouting profundities about how rock ‘n’ roll will always survive.
Not Alex’s finest moment.
When Kanye was censored for swearing all the time in 2015
When Kanye performed his track All Day at the awards in 2015, NME counted 14 uses of the n-word.
Turns out Kanye had broken his promise with ITV when he made all the swears, as he’d previously agreed to deliver a clean performance even though it was past the 9pm watershed.
What went out to living rooms was so heavily and consistently bleeped that it was hard to hear what the rapper was saying.
Remember when West stormed the stage to argue Beyonce should have won the VMA Award for Best Female Video instead of Taylor Swift? Kanye can’t seem to resist having his voice heard.
And finally, when Lewis Capaldi brought Buckfast on stage
As you can see from this list, the BRITs have never been about staying classy, and Lewis Capaldi epitomised the eccentricity of the ceremony when he walked on stage with Scotland’s finest aperitif, Buckfast.
As he collected his award for Song of the Year for Someone You Loved, the Glaswegian plonked his bottle on the podium – swerving the champagne on ice – and thanked his mum and dad for having sex and his gran for “dying,” as she was the inspiration for the song.
What on EARTH’s gonna happen in 2022?
Related links:
- BRITs scrap male and female prizes as ceremony goes gender neutral
- Hugh Jackman opened the BRIT awards and people absolutely loved it
- Philip Schofield Snapchatted the entire BRITs while he was hammered
