Harry Styles won big at the BRIT Awards — and dedicated his artist of the year prize to the female artists excluded from the all-male nominees.
The BRIT Awards have been many things over their 46-year history, but they have never been Saturday night entertainment. Until now.
The 2023 edition moved to Saturday night in search of a ratings boost (the slot traditionally attracts the biggest audience of the U.K. TV week, while last year the ceremony pulled in just 2.7 million midweek viewers), although it seems likely most of the target demographic would be out on the town, dancing to these songs in less glitzy surroundings than London’s O2 Arena.
The rumor all week was that broadcasters wanted a safe, conservative show to keep the family audience at home happy.
Did they get it? Well, yes and no.
Harry Styles certainly stuck to the script. He has previous experience as Mr. Saturday Night, of course, first coming to public attention as a member of One Direction in this very slot as a contestant on “The X Factor.” 1D actually finished third in that contest, but Styles was tonight’s undisputed winner; opening the show with an exuberant, if straightforward, run through “As It Was” and going on to win four gongs.
Pop/R&B Act, Song of the Year, Artist of the Year and Mastercard Album of the Year, all for his Grammy-winning “Harry’s House” album, brought him back to the stage for speeches laced with rather more gratitude than attitude, although he did at least address the big pre-show controversy over the all-male shortlist for Artist of the Year, after gendered categories were scrapped last year (not to mention his baffling, much-criticized comment when accepting the Grammy for album of the year just six days ago, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often”).
“I’m very aware of my privilege up here tonight,” he said, referencing just some of the female artists overlooked by Academy voters to warm applause. “So this is for Rina [Sawayama], Charli [XCX], Florence [+ the Machine], Mabel and Becky [Hill].”
But this BRITs also offered an alternative narrative. Because the other big winners were Wet Leg – the sort of quirky indie rockers who dominated this event in its ‘90s heyday, but barely get a look in nowadays. Their performance went full “Midsommar” as they hurtled through “Chaise Longue” – a rare indie rock song that can compete with the pop bangers on their own terms – accompanied by a whirl of folk dancers and people dressed as woodland creatures. And their two acceptance speeches, for winning Group of the Year and Best New Artist, were just as attention-grabbing.
