2015 Brit Awards
The 2015 Brit Awards were held on 25 February 2015. This was the 35th edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The awards ceremony was held at The O2 Arena in London, presented by Ant & Dec. This was their second time hosting, and their first since 2001. Award nominations were revealed on 15 January 2015. Tracey Emin became the fifth artist to style the BRITs statue.
Performances
The Brits Are Coming: Nominations Launch Party
hosted the launch show inside the ITV Studios in London on Thursday 15 January.| Artist | Song | UK Singles Chart reaction |
| Jessie Ware | "You and I " | N/A |
| Clean Bandit Jess Glynne | "Real Love" "Rather Be" | 12 39 |
| FKA Twigs | "Hide" "Pendulum" | N/A |
| James Bay | "Let It Go" | N/A |
Main show performances
The first three performers were announced for the 2015 Brit Awards on 16 December 2014.| Artist | Song | UK Singles Chart reaction | UK Albums Chart reaction |
| Taylor Swift | "Blank Space" | 29 | 1989 – 5 |
| Sam Smith | "Lay Me Down" | 15 | In the Lonely Hour – 1 |
| Royal Blood | "Figure It Out" | 43 | Royal Blood – 3 |
| Ed Sheeran | "Bloodstream" | 35 | x – 2 + – 25 |
| Kanye West | "All Day" | 18 | N/A |
| Take That | "Let in the Sun" | did not chart | III – 18 |
| George Ezra | "Budapest" | 18 | Wanted on Voyage – 4 |
| Paloma Faith | "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" | 32 | A Perfect Contradiction – 8 |
| Madonna | "Living for Love" | 26 | Celebration – 38 |
Winners and nominees
Global Success Award
- Sam Smith
Multiple nominations and awards
| Nominations | Artist |
| 5 | Sam Smith |
| 4 | Ed Sheeran |
| 4 | George Ezra |
| 4 | Royal Blood |
| 3 | alt-J |
| 3 | Jess Glynne |
| 2 | Bruno Mars |
| 2 | Calvin Harris |
| 2 | Clean Bandit |
| 2 | Duke Dumont |
| 2 | Ella Henderson |
| 2 | FKA Twigs |
| 2 | Jax Jones |
| 2 | Mark Ronson |
| 2 | One Direction |
| 2 | Route 94 |
| 2 | Sigma |
| Awards | Artist |
| 2 | Ed Sheeran |
Notable moments
Kanye West performance
was confirmed to perform just the day before the awards took place. He performed his song "All Day" amongst a large entourage including grime musicians Skepta, Stormzy, Krept and Konan, Jammer and Novelist. The entourage held flamethrowers and wore all black. However, his performance was repeatedly muted throughout most of the track for those watching on television due to the extreme explicit language featured within the song's lyrics, with the use of "nigga" being repeatedly rapped live on ITV.The performance drew mixed reactions from the crowd, with presenters Ant & Dec joking about it afterwards, and divided opinions on social media; some criticising West's performance and some criticising how ITV dealt with the issue.
Madonna incident
was the last to perform on the night, singing a version of her song "Living for Love" to close the show and mark her first Brits performance in 20 years. Shortly into her performance, a problem with her costume caused her to be pulled down a flight of stairs that made up part of the stage.She later took to Instagram to confirm that she was uninjured, posting "Thanks for the good wishes! I'm fine". It was later revealed that her cape was tied too tightly when her dancers attempted to remove it from her neck, causing her to crash to the floor and leaving the audience in shock.
After several seconds, she continued the performance as planned.