Manchester quartet The 1975 capped a highly successful 2019 Brit Awards on Wednesday (Feb. 20) with a performance of their A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships single “Sincerity Is Scary.”
The performance included a number of allusions to the “Sincerity” music video, including frontman Matty Healy wearing a knit cap, a backpack and a pair of headphones (in addition to his tuxedo) — a look later described by host Jack Whitehall as “half James Bond, half Japanese schoolgirl.” He also performed on a moving conveyor belt, which helped create the feeling of motion from the choreography-heavy clip. (Billboard previously named “Sincerity” the 15th best music video of 2018.)
Earlier in the evening, the group won a pair of awards: British group, which the band previously won in 2017, and British album (for Brief Inquiry), which the group had never won before. While accepting the former, Healy quoted British culture critic Laura Snapes, writing about sexism in the music industry: “Male misogynist acts are are examined for nuance and examined as traits of difficult artists, while women and those who call them out are treated as hysterics who don’t understand art.”
The 1975 are expected to release their fourth album, Notes on a Conditional Form, sometime in 2019.
Excitement levels peaked by 1975% when @the1975 performed ‘Sincerity Is Scary’ —#BRITs
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/qj4KiENtGs pic.twitter.com/4LA5xyAv7e
— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) February 20, 2019