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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Benjamin Lynch

Who votes for the BRIT Awards and who decides the winners as Adele and Dua Lipa win big

The BRITs played out to eager music fans last night as history was made with Mo Gilligan becoming the first Black British host.

Stars Adele and Dua Lipa were two of the night's big winners in a show that saw host Mo taking the mickey out of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and flames shooting from the tip of rapper Dave's guitar.

Though the ceremony's antics have dwindled in how raucous they can get in recent years, it still displays some of British music's most talented performers.

Even then, a nostalgic throwback was present when former Oasis star Liam Gallagher put in a belting version of Everything's Electric after seemingly arriving by helicopter.

Adele became Artist of the Year, while her song Easy On Me took home the crown of Song of the Year. Indie rockers Wolf Alice's soaring lyrics over grungey guitars earned them Group of the Year.

You can see a full list of winners, which includes Dua Lipa as best Pop and R&B act and Ed Sheeran, here.

As Ann-Marie fell over and Adele paid tribute to her ex-husband and son, some viewers were left wondering who decides the winners.

Who votes for the BRITs awards?

Sam Fender with his new award for Best Alternative Rock Act (Getty Images)

Most, but not all, of the awards are voted for by the BRITs Voting Academy.

Awards are mainly voted for by the voting academy, while nominations in the two 'Song of the Year' categories are decided partly by UK chart performance. The winner of this is then picked by the voting academy.

Meanwhile, Dua Lipa's prize for Best Pop/R&B Act, her fifth Brit, was voted for by fans.

Some artists were visibly delighted with their awards and upon winning International Artist of the Year, Billie Eilish said: "I feel so lucky to be awarded this again, I don’t feel deserving."

Rapper Dave, meanwhile, dedicated his Best Hip-Hop/Grime/Rap to "the rappers that have suffered for years and years, and broken down so many barriers in this industry that I’m in right now".

Who are the BRITs Voting Academy?

Adele said: "I really love being a female artist." ((Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage))

The BRITs Voting Academy is made up of musicians, people in the media and those who work in the music industry.

The voting academy faced pressure to remove its gendered awards and this year there was no 'Best Female Artist' or 'Best Male Artist' award.

A change in how the voting works occurred this year as the academy said categories would alter to a genre-based system.

They said awards were chosen "Solely for their music and work, rather than how they choose to identify or as others may see them, as part of The Brits' commitment to evolving the show to be as inclusive and as relevant as possible".

Upon receiving her award, Adele said : "I understand why they changed the name of this award [from best female/male artist], but I really love being a woman, I really love being a female artist."

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