Beyonce may have been bested by Adele at the Grammys, but she was able to win on the British songbird’s home turf when she took the International Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards on Wednesday (Feb. 22). But don’t despair for Adele; she got the inaugural Brits Global Success Award.
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Among the competitive categories, the late David Bowie won both British Male Solo Artist and British Album for “Blackstar.” At the recent Grammys, that disc won four awards: Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Alternative Album and Best Engineered Album.
Emilie Sande was named Best British Female Solo Artist while The 1975 took the homegrown group award. Little Mix, a past winner of “The X Factor,” prevailed in a crowded field of 10 nominees for Best British Single with “Shout Out To My Ex.” And One Direction, which is currently on hiatus, took the British Video of the Year award for “History” over, among others, former bandmate Zayn Malik, who contended with “Pillowtalk.”
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The other international winners were the Canadian rapper Drake and the American hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Drake made headlines after the Grammys when he criticized the recording academy for his two wins for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song for “Hotline Bling.” As he explained, “Even though ‘Hotline Bling’ is not a rap song, the only category they can manage to fit me in is a rap category … Maybe because I’ve rapped in the past or because I’m black, I can’t figure out why.”
