ITV face backlash for muting large sections of Skepta's post-watershed Brits performance
Dermot O'Leary was allowed to swear
Considering the surging wave of mainstream popularity that grime is currently enjoying, it’s no surprise that the Brit Awards wanted to make the most exciting music scene in the country a big part of last night’s London bash.
But there were more than a few question marks over how it all went down.
The night began with Skepta, Stormzy and Kano all nominated for various awards, and the consensus was that between the three of them they’d pick up at least one. In Skepta’s case, last year’s Mercury Music Prize triumph led a lot of people to believe he was a shoe-in for Best British Breakthrough. But the Tottenham-born MC was snubbed in all three of his nomination categories, and it was the same story for the others.
Then came Skepta’s live performance. The grime superstar gave a packed-out O2 Arena a typically thunderous rendition of his single ‘Shutdown’, but the audio was frequently muted, despite being aired after the 9pm watershed.
ITV didn’t get an easy ride from viewers, who questioned why Skepta dropping the word “pussy” was deemed to be more offensive than presenter Dermot O'Leary urging the crowd to go ‘batshit crazy’ just moments before. He managed to sneak through the bleep radar, as did Jonathan Ross later on.
The Brits also saw David Bowie receive two posthumous awards, with the much-missed singer winning Best British Solo Male Artist and Best Album for Blackstar.
Oh yeah, and Bradley Walsh is mates with Stormzy now.
(Main image credit: ITV)
