U.K. pop acts Cheryl Cole, JLS and Robbie Williams were among the big winners at the BT Digital Music Awards, held in London last night (Sept. 30).
Out of the 21 awards on offer, pop dominated the evening, with Cole — who was not present — winning best female artist and best song for her U.K. No.1 “Fight For This Love” (Fascination/Universal).
U.K. boy band JLS was, however, on hand to pick up awards for best group and best video for “Everybody in Love” (Epic/Sony Music). Gorillaz won the artist of the year and best artist promotion awards, with band member Murdoc accepting the awards via a video set within the fictional Plastic Beach island.
Robbie Williams — who rejoined Take That earlier this year and releases his greatest hits collection “In And Out Of Consciousness: The Greatest Hits 1990-2010” (Virgin/EMI) Oct. 11 — was named best male artist.
The categories of best international artist/group and best independent artist/group were awarded to Lady Gaga and U.K. rapper Dizzee Rascal respectively. Prizes were chosen by a judging panel of industry professionals, as well as public votes collated via the awards website www.btdma.com.
Ne-Yo, Scouting For Girls, Marina and the Diamonds and U.K. urban acts Professor Green, Tinie Tempah and Roll Deep, were among the guests who performed at the event, which was held at London’s Roundhouse venue.
In addition to performing, Green won the award for breakthrough artist of the year, with fellow EMI label mate Tempah named best newcomer.
Although the live performances were slick, the ceremony suffered several technical hitches, while the non-attendance of several artists caused a few surreal moments for industry attendees — most notably Official Charts Co. managing director Martin Talbot twice being called upon to collect awards for Cole.
Commenting on EMI’s strong performance at the award’s ceremony, Andria Vidler, president of EMI Music U.K. and Ireland, said she was “thrilled for all the EMI artists who have won tonight.”
“Working together with our artists has enabled the EMI team to develop and deliver digital marketing campaigns that build on the artists’ creative vision and the DMA awards recognize how well that combination can work,” Vidler went on to say.
As well as recognizing artists, BT Digital Awards were also given to a number of digital music platforms, applications and websites, with YouTube winning the prize for best place to hear music and iTunes being awarded best place to buy music.
Best innovation or gadget was online concert listings service Songkick, while London-based dance act Pendulum took home the best music app award for their “Witchcraft Experiment” Facebook app.
