The BRIT Awards with Mastercard today confirm long term headline partner Mastercard for the 23rd year, along with Official Digital Music Partner Amazon Music for the second consecutive year, and TikTok following the successful collaboration at last year’s BRITs.
Mastercard have 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, in celebration of the biggest night in British music. Mastercard are this year proud to connect people to priceless possibilities and will again sponsor the much sought after Mastercard Album of the Year award, as well as British Single for the first time.
Mastercard’s long term partnership with The BRIT Awards also supports the ongoing fundraising for The BRIT Trust, a primary beneficiary of which is The BRIT School for young creative talent, along with other selected charities which promote education and wellbeing through music. such as Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and MIND. Over £27million has been raised for The BRIT Trust in total.
Agnes Woolrich, Head of Marketing and Communications, Mastercard UK and Ireland: “Music has never been more important with its power to connect and bring us together, and we’re delighted to sponsor The BRIT Awards for the 23rd year. This year might look a little different, but we’re excited to bring the biggest night in music, and Priceless moments big and small, to cardholders in new and exciting ways.”
As part of Mastercard’s long term partnership, The BRIT Awards will be launching a new Podcast series called BRITs Top Table with Mastercard next month, with the series exclusively launching via Amazon Music. The eight episode series will present exciting and diverse voices in British music on their own experiences and the music they love and will run across the BRITs campaign and become a regular feature of the BRITs content strategy going forward.
Amazon Music will continue their role as Official Digital Music Partner for a second year. In addition to sponsorship of the Male and Female Solo Artist categories, Amazon Music will launch the official BRITs playlist on 31st March when this year’s nominations are announced and will exclusively host live music from the show - available to stream post-event on Amazon Music.
“We’re thrilled to be an official partner for the second year in a row, celebrating the British music industry and some of the UK’s most loved artists,” said Jillian Gerngross, Director, Amazon Music Europe. “This year we’re excited to help bring fans closer to their favourite artists in even more ways, including the brand-new BRITs podcast. We’re looking forward to an amazing night of music.”
The BRIT Awards 2021 has once again partnered with TikTok, building on the huge success of 2020’s first collaboration. As part of the partnership, TikTok will present the category of Breakthrough Artist. TikTok will run an exclusive series of events in-app to profile those nominated in the category; from TikTok LIVEs, to hashtag challenges, special programming and a BRITs takeover in the run up to the awards itself, TikTok will once again bring the biggest night in British music to its community around the world.
Paul Hourican, Head of Music Operations UK at TikTok said:
"We're delighted to partner with The BRIT Awards for the second year running and present the Breakthrough Artist category. 2020's BRITs live stream and #RedCarpetReady challenge ignited the passion and creativity of our community, placing TikTok at the heart of the industry's biggest night. A year on and TikTok's impact on the UK music industry is undeniable, helping break artists and their music and becoming the home for music discovery for fans the world over. Increasingly, UK Music starts on TikTok.”
Speaking about the partnerships, Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive BPI & BRIT Awards, said:
“We are thrilled that The BRIT Awards’ successful partnership with Mastercard is being extended for a record breaking 23rd year – it speaks volumes about their long term commitment to music and to the BRITs as the biggest night in British music. We are also delighted to welcome back Amazon Music as our Official Digital Music Partner. Amazon Music is one of the fastest growing music streaming services, with a broad fan base that matches perfectly with the BRITs audience. Finally, we are pleased that TikTok is returning for a second as a BRITs official partner, appropriately supporting our Breakthrough artist award, given their importance in highlighting new talent.”
“Music has rarely played a more important role in our national life than it has this past year, so The BRITs in May will take on a special significance as a celebration of the music and artists that helped us to get through lockdown. Together with our broadcaster ITV, it’s wonderful to have such committed partners on board who recognise the true value of music and the unique platform The BRITs give to it each year.”
The nominations for this year’s BRITs are set to be announced this Wednesday 31st March, by popular broadcaster Nick Grimshaw and Griff, this year’s BRITs Rising Star winner, live at 4.00PM BST across all @BRITs official digital channels including; TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
