The BRIT Awards 2021 will be first major indoor music event to welcome back a live audience

Updated Monday 10 May:

The BRIT Awards 2021 with Mastercard today announces that multi-million selling international superstar and songwriter of a generation Taylor Swift will be the first female artist to be presented with the BRITs Global Icon award at this year’s ceremony, which takes place Tuesday 11th May, in recognition of her immense impact on music across the world and incredible repertoire and achievements to date. According to the Official Charts Company, Taylor is the UK’s biggest selling artist of the year to date in 2021.

Updated Tuesday 4th May:

The BRIT Awards 2021 with Mastercard today announce that Coldplay, one of the world’s biggest bands with over 100million album sales worldwide to date, will be opening this year’s show on 11th May.

Updated Thursday 29 April:

Clara Amfo and Maya Jama are confirmed to host this year’s BRITs Backstage show on ITV2 and ITV Hub on the night of the awards. Both broadcasters are very much part of the BRITs’ family; Clara has hosted the BRITs Red Carpet show for the last four years and Maya hosted the BRITs’ Facebook live stream from the red carpet in 2017.

Updated Wednesday 28 April:

The BRIT Awards 2021 with Mastercard today confirm that Olivia Rodrigo, the critically acclaimed U.S. singer songwriter whose monumental debut single ‘drivers license’ has been a worldwide phenomenon this year, breaking international streaming and chart records and hitting the No. 1 spot in over 25 countries, will make her debut UK performance at this year’s BRITs. She will join the already-announced Arlo Parks, Dua Lipa, Griff, Headie One and, as revealed yesterday, Rag’n’Bone Man & P!nk with the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Choir. 

Updated Monday 26 April:

The BRITs this morning have announced that Rag'n'Bone Man & P!nk will perform their new duet at the BRITs next month with very special guests, the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Choir. See below press release with quotes from Rag'n'Bone Man and the choir.

This follows the news last week that The BRITs will welcome a live audience as part of the Government pilot scheme for events; 2500 tickets have been gifted to key workers and their guests via a ballot which is now live on www.brits.co.uk and closes at midnight tonight.

***

The BRIT Awards with Mastercard 2021

Tuesday May 11 2021 – at The O2 arena on ITV and ITV Hub

The BRIT Awards celebrate the return to live music as the first major indoor music event – with a special audience of invited key workers

The BRIT Awards 2021 will be first major indoor music event to welcome back a live audience – a pivotal moment in the return of live music at scale

2,500 tickets to be gifted by the recorded music industry to frontline heroes – ballot for free tickets opens on brits.co.uk on Thursday 22nd April at 09.00 hours

***

“This has been a long tough year for everyone and I'm delighted the night will honour the key worker heroes who have cared for us so well during that time and continue to do so. They are quite simply an inspiration. The BRIT Awards are always special and this will truly make it a night to remember.” – DUA LIPA 

***

The BRIT Awards 2021 with Mastercard today confirm that they plan to welcome a live audience of 4,000 people at this year’s event taking place on 11th May at The O2 arena in London, and to be broadcast live on ITV and ITV Hub.

The indoor ceremony and live show will form part of the Government’s scientific Events Research Programme, using enhanced testing approaches to examine how events can take place without the need for social distancing1.

Working closely with the Government to adhere to safety guidelines, this means The BRITs, as the first live music show at The O2 in over a year, will play an important role in paving the way for the return of live music at scale as the UK emerges from the past year’s restrictions.

2,500 tickets to be gifted by the recorded music industry to frontline workers

We are further delighted to announce that, in recognition of their extraordinary efforts during the pandemic, the BRITs is inviting key workers from the Greater London Area2 to make up most of the audience for the UK’s biggest night in music. The majority of the tickets (2,500) will be gifted by record labels and the recorded music industry via ballot to frontline workers2 (and a guest of their choice) from a range of sectors to thank them for their remarkable hard work and selfless commitment.

All applicants and attendees must consent to participating in the Government’s scientific Events Research Programme on the basis of its terms and conditions1.

The BRIT Awards 2021 is set to be an incredible night of reflection and celebration.  A ballot for free tickets for key workers will open on www.brits.co.uk on Thursday 22nd April 2021 from 09.00 hours.

Speaking about this news, global superstar and multi BRIT nominated artist who will be performing on the night, Dua Lipa said:

“This has been a long tough year for everyone and I'm delighted the night will honour the key worker heroes who have cared for us so well during that time and continue to do so. They are quite simply an inspiration. The BRIT Awards are always special and this will truly make it a night to remember.” 

Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive BPI & BRIT Awards, said:

“This year’s BRIT Awards with Mastercard is one of the most significant in the show’s history. Not only will we be celebrating the brilliant music and artists that have helped us through the pandemic, but we hope it will provide a path for the return of live music that fans and artists have so sorely missed. And as a thank you to the key workers who have kept our country going through the difficult times, we are inviting them to be our audience for the first live performances at The O2 in over a year. 

“We’re buzzing about the show and working closely with Government, The O2 and all our partners to ensure all safety measures and guidelines are adhered to.”

Danielle Kennedy Clarke, Deputy General Manager of The O2, said:

“We’re proud that The O2 has been selected to host the largest indoor capacity pilot event with The BRITs. This scientific trial is an important step on the path to recovery for the live entertainment industry, and our operational teams are making the final preparations to be able to welcome people into The O2 arena again for the first time in more than a year.”

Mastercard return as headline partner for the 23rd year, having supported The BRITs for over two decades, bringing cardholders closer to music through a range of priceless experiences – from tickets to The BRITs, or Priceless Surprises with some of the UK’s best loved artists. This year, Mastercard will continue to sponsor the much sought after Mastercard Album of the Year award, as well as British Single with Mastercard for the first time and is proud to carry on connecting people to priceless possibilities.  Amazon Music is the Official Digital Music Partner for a second year and will host the Official BRIT Awards 2021 playlist as well as sponsor the Male and Female Solo Artist categories.

ITV Studios is handling international distribution for the Brit Awards.

[end]

www.brits.co.uk

Notes to Editors

1 Through the Events Research Programme, the annual UK music industry showcase will test the safety of live audiences returning to indoor seated settings on a large scale. The research gathered from this year’s BRIT Awards will build on the evidence collected at other pilots in the programme, including the World Snooker Championships at the Sheffield Crucible and an outdoor gig at Sefton Park hosted by Festival Republic. The evidence from these pilots will be used to inform government policy to bring about the phased return of fuller audiences to venues and events across England.

Audience members will not be socially distanced or required to wear face coverings in the arena, but they will be required to follow existing Government guidance when travelling to the venue and adhere to rules set out by the event organisers.

Attendees must have proof of a negative lateral flow test result to enter the venue. As part of the wider scientific research on the trial events, attendees will also be asked to take a test after the event to gather further evidence on the safety of indoor settings, reduced social distancing and the removal of non-pharmaceutical interventions like face coverings.

They will also have to provide contact details for NHS Test and Trace to ensure everyone can be traced in the event of an audience member receiving a positive test after the event.  Link to DCMS FAQ here.

2 The key worker guests will be part of a total audience of up to 4,000 attendees including 1,500 places allocated for purchase to the nominated and performing artists and their teams, supporting record labels, management and show partners and sponsors.  Ballot applications are invited from The Greater London Area only to discourage longer-distance travel.

3 All BRIT Awards 2021 announcements can be found on the BRITs website: https://www.brits.co.uk/

About The BRIT Awards – British Record Industry Trust

The BRIT (British Record Industry Trust) Awards are organised by the BPI – the UK record labels’ association that promotes British music. The BPI’s membership is made up of over 450 independent labels as well as the UK’s three major record companies – collectively they account for around 85 per cent of the music consumed in the UK and with their artists around one in ten streams around the world. The BRIT Awards 2021 with Mastercard will be the 41st BRIT Awards show, which, along with other music industry events, has raised nearly 27 million for The BRIT Trust charity, whose main beneficiaries include The BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology www.brit.croydon.sch.uk, music therapy charity Nordoff-Robbins www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk, Mind www.mind.org.uk and other selected charities which promote education and wellbeing through music. Over 10,000 young people have been given free education and the opportunity to enter the BRIT School since its opening in 1991 and more than 10,000 children and adults have been helped by the extraordinary music therapy work carried out by Nordoff-Robbins.

About Mastercard

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all. Follow us on Twitter @MastercardUK

About ITV

ITV entertains millions of people and shapes culture. We are a leading media and entertainment company, with the largest commercial television network in the UK and a global production business, with over over 55 labels. Creativity, quality content and engaging audiences in the UK and around the world is at the core of everything we do. We are More than TV. We reach over 40 million viewers every week with our programmes on ITV's family of channels, as well as the ITV Hub, which is available on 28 platforms and on over 90% of connected televisions sold in the UK. ITV delivers 99% of all commercial audiences in the UK over 5 million viewers and in 2019 is achieving its highest share of viewing in 11 years making it a powerful  partner on TV, the advertising platform with the best rate of return when compared to other media. As advertisers use more targeted advertising as part of their marketing communications, ITV has concluded an agreement with a leading ad tech provider, Amobee, which will enable ITV to deliver programmatic addressable advertising around its  premium video inventory on the ITV Hub. This, together with the investment in data and analytics, provides advertisers with mass, quality, trusted reach together with targeting ensuring ITV remains a powerful medium for helping companies grow. ITV as part of its More than TV strategy, has created a scaled Direct to Consumer business in the UK, including recently surpassing 500,000 subscribers to its ad-free catch-up service, Hub+. It will launch BritBox, a streaming service with the BBC in the latter part of 2019, bringing people the best of British talent from the past, present and will commission original content. ITV Studios produces 8,900 hours of original programming each year, across 55 production labels. Our global footprint spans 12 countries including the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, The Nordics, Italy and the Netherlands and our global distribution business sells our catalogue of 45,000+ hours to more than 3000 broadcasters and platforms. As the media landscape continues to change rapidly, ITV is focused on building upon its unique combination of creativity and commercial strength, transforming digitally to create a more diversified and structurally sound business.