SONG OF THE DAY
“Someone Like You” by Adele (Live at the BRIT Awards 2011).
RECOMMENDED BY
My good and musical friend, Regina, who in fact sang at my wedding and has much the same musical tastes as me. She came up this weekend to see a free performance of “Cradle Will Rock” on my hubby’s campus (which I will blog about tomorrow), and then we talked Adele versus Amy Winehouse over dinner. Regina made a strong case for our girl Adele, and said that this performance was really what edged out the great crack-headed one. It’s so stripped down, it’s remarkable, and she was right, it made my hair stand on end when the glitter fell. Oh, just watch!!
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– The Brit Awards (stylized as the BRIT Awards; often simply called the Brits) are the British Phonographic Industry’s annual pop music awards.
– The name was originally a shortened form of “British” or “Britannia”, but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust.
– In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for classical music, called the Classical BRIT Awards, is held each May.
– Robbie Williams holds the record for the most Brit Awards, having won a total of 12 as a solo artist and another 5 awards as part of Take That.
– The awards began in 1977 and as annual event in 1982 under the auspices of the British record industry’s trade association.
– The Brit Awards were broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood hosted a poorly organised show in which little went as rehearsed. Subsequently, the event was recorded and broadcast the following night. From 2007, the Brit Awards reverted to a live broadcast on British television, on 14 February on ITV. In that year, comedian Russell Brand was presenter and three awards were dropped from the ceremony: Best British Rock Act, Best British Urban Act and Best Pop Act.
– Adele’s performance is listed on Wikipedia as one of the “Notable Moments” of this award show’s history!: “Adele performed her song “Someone Like You” at the 2011 Brits with only a piano accompanying her. Her emotional performance was received with a standing ovation at the O2 Arena and the video received millions of hits on YouTube within days. Following the performance, James Corden, who hosted the 2011 awards, said, “Wow. Wasn’t that amazing? You can have all the dancers, the pyrotechnics, laser shows you want, but if you sound like that, all you need is a piano. Incredible.” The performance launched “Someone Like You” 46 spots up the UK charts to number one and, in the process, made Adele the first artist in the UK since the Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums at the same time.”