This year’s Brit awards found a flicker of chaos – but the winners were never in doubt

A Manchester move, Shaun Ryder’s bleeped-out anecdote and the odd leftfield flourish added some life to a slick ceremony – yet when it came to the prizes, commercial heavyweights tended to reign • Brit awards 2026: the full list of winners • ‘We’re going into a dark place’: Brit awards artists voice alarm over Reform UK’s rise The Brit awards have perhaps borrowed a trick from the Mercury prize, which last year unexpectedly applied the defibrillator to an event that’s been on the verge of ext...

By Alexis Petridis