Brit Beat: Next Week’s BRIT Awards Aim for ‘New and Young Audiences’; New AEG Boss Steve Homer’s Hopes for Live Music’s Recovery

variety.com:

Mark Sutherland The Grammys may have been postponed until April, but the U.K. equivalent – the BRIT Awards – will take place next week as planned at the O2 Arena in London.However, the event will not quite be fully restored to its traditional set-up, with no industry tables on the arena floor (execs will instead be in hospitality boxes, like last year’s COVID-restricted event, while fans and artists will be seated on the floor) and no aftershow party.The event also has a new look, with a fresh host (comedian Mo Gilligan), set designer (Glastonbury favorites Block9), and several new categories (including the Artist of the Year gong, four new genre awards and the inaugural Songwriter of the Year prize), all brought in by the BRITs committee’s new chair, Polydor Records co-president Tom March.

March tells Variety that it was a close call as to whether the awards could take place amid the omicron surge around Christmas.“There were definitely conversations about whether we should or shouldn’t,” he says. “But the artists, the fans, the industry, everyone wanted the show to go ahead.”March says he made changes to the event after extensive research with the BRITs audience.“The things that were coming out [from the focus groups] were things that I’d already thought I’d like to shake up, change and evolve,” he says. “I wanted the BRITs to feel really open; for the fans to have a say and for every single platform possible to really embrace it and run with it.”So, as well as the live telecast on ITV, the awards have partnered with TikTok on fan voting for the new genre awards; with YouTube for the global livestream; and with Serenade for the event’s first NFT drop.