Over the past four-plus decades, the Brit awards have had their fair share of chaos and controversy. But their role in celebrating and supporting the best of the British music scene can’t be underestimated. Here are The Observer’s picks of the best Brit winners down the years.
Listen to the Observer’s Playlist of the Week here.
When the British Phonographic Industry put on the first version of what would become the Brit awards in 1982, it could not have known what it would become. Unsurprisingly, this mammoth hit from synth-pop duo Soft Cell, a cover of Gloria Jones’s 1964 Motown single and the biggest song of 1981 in the UK, was awarded best British single.
The Brits have a long history of recognising the brilliance of British pop girl groups, be it the Spice Girls, Girls Aloud or Little Mix. But you just can’t go wrong with the twinkling harmonies of All Saints on their 1998 hit Never Ever.
Nothing screams 2012 more than The X Factor boy band One Direction, who won best British single for What Makes You Beautiful, beating Adele’s Someone Like You and Ed Sheeran’s The A Team. Even after his own huge commercial success, Harry Styles plays this track every night on his tours.
Speaking of Adele, the success of Someone Like You from her second studio album 21, can certainly be pegged to her staggering stripped-back performance of the track at the 2011 Brit awards. It's just as heartbreaking to listen back to 15 years later.
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Robbie Williams has racked up more Brit awards (13) than any other artist or group over a chaotic 30-year career, including winning best male solo artist four times – and that doesn’t include the five awards he picked up as part of Take That. There are too many stellar tracks to pick from Mr Rock DJ himself's back catalogue – but She’s the One always lands.
Illustration by Charlotte Durance