Stormzy brought the fire and the rain at London’s O2 arena Tuesday (Feb. 18) at the 2020 Brit Awards and brought out two other special guests: Tiana Major9 and Nigerian rapper Burna Boy.
He started off slowly with the calming interlude “Don’t Forget to Breathe” (sans featured artist YEBBA) from his critically acclaimed British No. 1 sophomore studio album Heavy Is the Head with a backing gospel choir before the moving vocals shifted to “Do Better.”
But the 26-year-old artist later ditched the sentimental singing for a pure grime spectacle when he spit right into “Wiley Flow” backed by a different crowd of boys mobbing around him (with fellow British grime MC and the song’s namesake Wiley nowhere in sight) in a narrow, suspended scaffolding highlighted in a dark red light and sparks sporadically shooting from underneath.
He also nodded to fellow British rapper J Hus by pivoting into his “Fortune Teller” before finally landing on his U.K. No. 1 single “Own It” with none other than the song’s famed feature Burna Boy, who got to dazzle in his own right with a special solo rendition of “Anybody” replete with African dancers sporting bright-colored, printed bodysuits and dresses.
But in a similar fashion to Dave‘s poignant performance of “Black” prior to Stormzy’s reign on stage, he projected a stirring message about racism and inequality that simmered his high-spirited set: “A lot of time they tell us ‘Black people, we too loud.’ Know what I’m sayin’? We need to turn it down a little bit. We seem too arrogant. We a little too much for them to handle. Black is beautiful man.”
“Rainfall” not only closed out Stormzy’s entire performance, but staged rainfall calmed the energetic set and showered the grime star and his posse of choir singers and male dancers. Finally, there was a reversion to the gospel-inspired start of the show that spotlighted the song’s interpolation of Mary Mary‘s 1999 hit “Shackles (Praise You),” performed by Tiana Major9.
Earlier in the evening, Stormzy took home the award for best male solo artist and gave “all the glory” to God, his mum and his team, with a special shout-out to the women in his life after the awards show spent its time quipping about the overwhelming amount of male nominees in the non-gender-specific categories. “And to be the best male, I’ve got the most incredible females on my team,” he said in his acceptance speech.