The BRIT Awards 2021 with Mastercard today announced that global pop superstar Dua Lipa and this year’s BRITs Rising Star winner Griff are the first performers to be confirmed for this year’s show on 11th May.
Dua Lipa: “I am so excited to be returning to perform for you all at The BRITs this year. It’s going to be truly special to be back on stage in the UK.”
Griff: “Guys, pray for me!! I’m going to be in a room full of the biggest and best artists in the world, singing my little heart out. I can’t wait!!!!”
Since the release of her first single in 2015, Dua Lipa has become one of the music world’s most exciting young artists. Her eponymous debut album has eclipsed 5 million sales worldwide, with single sales reaching 80 million and the video for her break-out hit ‘New Rules’ (“the song that changed my life,” she says), made her the youngest female solo artist to reach one billion views on YouTube. She made BRIT Award history in 2018 as the first female artist to pick up five nominations, with two wins for British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo Artist. She then went on to receive two Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Dance Recording for ‘Electricity’, her collaboration with Silk City the following year. At the end of 2019, Dua performed her Number 1 global hit single ‘Don’t Start Now’ at the MTV EMAs, ARIAs, MAMAs and AMA’s in the lead up to the release of her latest album, Future Nostalgia. Her sophomore record was released in March 2020 and surpassed 294 million streams in its first week and has reached 3 million global sales, exceeded 6 billion streams across all of its tracks and has just been certified platinum in the UK. To celebrate the release, Dua performed a star-studded livestream version of the album called ‘Studio 2054’ which broke records for global livestream sales after attracting millions of viewers worldwide. This year Dua added a 3rd Grammy win for Best Pop Vocal album for Future Nostalgia and also holds the record for the most streamed album in a single day by any British female artist. Dua is the most listened to British artist on Spotify globally and the most listened to female artist on the platform. She has also had the longest run of 3 tracks in the top 10 by a female artist since 1955 and the album has spent 28 weeks in the top 10 since its release.
Griff was announced the winner of this year’s BRITs Rising Star award supported by BBC Radio 1 earlier this month, seeing off strong competition from Pa Salieu and Rina Sawayama, and will perform at this year’s BRITs following the debut Rising Star performance from Celeste at last year’s show. A truly multi-faceted talent, 20-year-old Griff grew up in Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, as the daughter of a Chinese mother and a Jamaican father. In 2019 she signed to Warner Records, picked up her first Radio 1 play from Annie Mac (whilst still doing her A Levels), and last summer she was nominated for the first ever Rising Star Ivor Novello Award. Songs like new single ‘Black Hole’ see Griff head down that rabbit hole of modern teenage life, exploring big themes (young love, mental health, family and friendship) in Griff’s own distinct style. And already, Griff's is the type of creative curiosity that draws no boundaries between making beats, designing your own clothes, or taking over Tate Modern as she did for just her second London show. Having fronted Disney's first Christmas ad campaign with 'Love Is A Compass', Griff secured a Top 5 place in the BBC's Sound of 2021 poll earlier this year, and will release her first mixtape - 'One Foot In Front Of The Other' - on Warner Music this summer.
This year’s BRIT Awards will take place 11th May at The O2 arena, exclusively broadcast on ITV and ITV Hub and hosted by award winning comedian and actor Jack Whitehall. Nominations are set to be announced TOMORROW (Wednesday 31st) from 4.00pm BST via an exclusive digital announcement across all @BRITs channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok) and hosted by broadcaster Nick Grimshaw, along with Griff. Tune in to find out who will be in the running for a 2021 BRIT, the trophies of which this year will be designed by two of Britain’s most in demand visual artists, Es Devlin OBE and Yinka Ilori MBE, as part of the creative team behind this year’s show.
Mastercard return as headline partner for the 23rd year, having supported The BRITs for over two decades, bringing cardholders closer to music through a range of priceless experiences - from tickets to the BRITs, or Priceless Surprises with some of the UK’s best loved artists. This year, Mastercard will continue to sponsor the much sought after Album of the Year award, as well as British Single with Mastercard for the first time and is proud to carry on connecting people to priceless possibilities. Amazon Music is the Official Digital Music Partner for a second year and will host the Official BRIT Awards 2021 playlist as well as sponsor the Male and Female Solo Artist categories. Following a successful partnership in 2020, TikTok will once again partner with The BRITs to sponsor the Breakthrough Artist category which will see an exclusive series of events in-app to profile those nominated, from TikTok LIVEs to hashtag challenges.
