Controversy Surrounding the Brit Awards

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/adeles-middle-finger-and-five-other-notable-bird-flippings-on-tv/

Adele and James Corden

Canisha Dewar, Staff Writer
May 22, 2012
Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Music, Top Stories

When we look back at the 2012 Brit Awards, the most memorable moments were English singer/song writer Adele winning two out of three of her nominations, Adele and Ed Sheeran’s amazing performances, and One Direction winning their first Brit Award. But the most controversial moment was when platinum selling artist Adele flipped off the people backstage.

Adele was first offered a contract with XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on my space in 2006. Her debut album 19 was released in 2008 to great success, gaining many awards along the way.

Adele, Billboard’s 2011 artist of the year, was nominated for three Brit Awards this year, taking two of them home. She was nominated for Best Female Solo Artist and the most important award of all, British Album of the Year. During her heartfelt acceptance speech for British Album of the Year, her speech was cut short for the last performance of British band Blur, because the show was running out of time. This led a frustrated Adele to finger the backstage crew. This also prompted fans of the singer to boo the poor host of the show James Corden, who was deeply upset that he had to interrupt the singer. A source backstage says that Suzi Alpin, the show’s producer, ordered Corden to cut off Adele. However a different source told the Daily Express that it is unclear who ordered Corden to cut Adele’s speech short. Shortly after Adele’s moment, Twitter exploded with tweets about how rude the producers were to cut Adele off.

Adele defended herself by saying “I flung the middle finger. That was for the suits at the Brit Awards, not my fans. I’m sorry if I offended anyone but the suits offended me. I was about to thank the British public for all their support but they cut me off. So thank you very much for all your support.” Following the Brit Awards the organizers released a statement that said “We regret this happened and we send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short due to the live show over running”. This event was very rude towards Adele and her fans.  In the future, time management could greatly aid to a successful show.