News - 15/12/2014

Pharrell Williams, Ed Sheeran rule first BBC Music Awards

Pharrell Williams, Ed Sheeran rule first BBC Music Awards

Pharrell Williams walked away happy when he won both Best International Artist and Song of the Year at the first ever BBC Music Awards.

Launched by the BBC, the UK public broadcaster, to celebrate the best in British music during the past year, the awards also recognised the contribution of international hit makers to the domestic scene.

As Song of the Year, Williams’ Happy topped the UK singles chart for four weeks during 2013 and it continued to be a regular TV and radio favourite most of this year.

Originally the soundtrack of the animation movie Despicable Me 2, it became the UK’s most downloaded track in September after selling more than 1 million copies, It is certified 3x Platinum by the UK trade organisation BPI. In the US, it was also the best-selling song of the year after hitting the No.1 spot for 10 weeks during the spring.

The Song of the Year award was voted for by listeners of the BBC’s Radio 1 and Radio 2, the UK’s biggest music radio networks. The other Song of the Year nominees included Royals from Lorde, Ghost by Ella Henderson and Money on My Mind by Sam Smith.

In the domestic market, Ed Sheeran is the man who can do no wrong at the moment. He was voted British Artist of the Year. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter’s second album X (pronounced “multiply”) has sold more than 1 million copies in the UK. It also debuted at No.1 in the Billboard chart in the US.

At the inaugural event on 11 December, veterans like Tom Jones and contemporary show stoppers such as, Paloma Faith, Take That, One Direction, Clean Bandit, and Coldplay performed to a crowd of more than 13,000 at London’s Earls Court.

The ceremony was watched on TV by an average audience of 3.9 million viewers, according to official overnight data. It did not match the 4.2 million people who watched the BRIT Awards last year February.

The next BRITs take place on 25 February. But until then, it was the BBC that took to the stage last week in terms of music industry celebrations.

[Juliana Koranteng]
 

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