Sam Smith has become the 3rd openly gay man to win British Breakthrough act at the Brits and the first to win the BRITs Global Success Award.
◉ Sam Smith is the third openly gay male to win the British Breakthrough act since 1977.
◉ Award comes after wins from Will Young and Mika
◉ Is the first gay male to win the Global Success Award after One Direction snabbed the award twice in a row.
The Stay With Me singer won two awards at last night’s BRITs awards ceremony, bagging himself the British Breakthrough act and the BRITs Global Success Award for his multi-million selling, In The Lonely Hour album. Sam Smith is the third openly gay man to win the British Breakthrough act, following in the footsteps of Will Young in 2003 and Mika in 2008, however Mika was not out at the time of his win.
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Smith became the first openly gay man to win the Global Success Awards, however the award has only been part of the ceremony since 2013. In 2013 and 2014 One Direction won the awards.
Of course the award has been won numerous times by groups that had openly gay members in them, such as Culture Club (1983), Frankie Goes To Hollywood (1984), S Club 7 (2000) and Blue (2002).
The show was streamed on YouTube across the world (excluding the UK and Ireland) for the second consecutive year and performances will be exclusively available on Google Play Music free of charge shortly after the show. Google Play will be making a donation to War Child and The BRIT Trust for every song downloaded or streamed.
And The Winners Are….
Best British Male Solo Artist – Ed Sheeran (presented by Orlando Bloom and Rita Ora)
British Group – Royal Blood (presented by Jimmy Page) International
Female Solo Artist – Taylor Swift (presented by Lewis Hamilton and Ellie Goulding)
Best British Female Artist – Paloma Faith (Presented by Mark Ronson)
BRITs Global Success Award – Sam Smith (Presented by Kim Kardashian-West)
International Male Solo Artist – Pharrell Williams (presented by Cara Delevigne)
British Single – Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars ‘Uptown Funk’ (presented by Lisa Snowdon and Lionel Richie)
International Group – Foo Fighters (presented by John Bishop)
British Breakthrough Act – Sam Smith (presented Fearne Cotton and Charli XCX)
British Artist Video Award – One Direction (Presented by Frank Lampard
