The opening to the Brit Awards 20162:02

A dramatic opening sequence to the 2016 Brit Awards

• February 25th 2016
• 4 days ago
• /video/video.news.com.au/Entertainment/

ADELE all but wiped the competition at the Brit Awards in London as she took home four gongs — but not before a F-bomb managed to slip through.

The Hello singer won the coveted Global Success award, handed down with a video honouring her dominance together with a special recorded congratulations message from space by British astronaut Tim Peake.

Adele rushed onto the stage in tears to deliver an teary thank you speech.

“I cant work out if I am crying because of the video or because Tim Peake did it,” she stammered before saying: “For you all to be so kind to me is so nice.”

But broadcasters accidentally muted the wrong part of her speech meaning one of her naughty words was heard around the world.

“That was really amazing and (muted words) f---ing bored of me (muted words). I honestly can’t tell you, to come back, I got really lost for a while.”

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The Hello singer clinched the first award of the night, taking home the best British female solo artist title as well as best single and best album of the year, in which she thanked her “love of her life” boyfriend.

And she was rapt: “I didn’t swear,” she proclaimed.

“Really sorry about swearing earlier and the ugly cry face.”

Britain’s sweetheart also earlier thanked her “management” for embracing her as a “woman”, before extending her support to embattled singer Kesha after a judge ruled she would not be allowed to break her recording contract with Sony’s Dr Luke, who she claims raped her.

“I’d also like to take this moment to publicly support Kesha,” she said, to cheers from the crowd, joining a string of top female musicians including Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

Adele closed the night by singing When We Were Young.

DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE

But the ceremony show-stopper was when New Zealand’s 19-year-old star Lorde — who David Bowie once tipped to being ‘the future’ when they met three years ago — blew away audiences delivering an outstanding tribute of Life On Mars, after which she clutched her chest appearing to hold back tears.

Lorde performed with Bowie’s former tour band, who last performed together in 2004. The band members performed a medley of his hits including Space Oddity, Let's Dance and Under Pressure, all the while the spotlight eerily beaming on the empty mic before Lorde then took centre stage.

Bowie — who lost his battle to cancer at age 69 in January — was awarded a posthumous Brit Icon gong.

Social media has been lit up with praise describing the performance as spot on — perhaps a little awkwardly after Lady Gaga’s colourful Grammy Awards tribute to Bowie last week.

Actor Gary Oldman, a close friend of Bowie’s, made an emotional tribute to the music legend remembering his talent, humour and positive outlook — even in the face of illness.

“Over his career, David challenged and changed our understanding of the medium,” he said.

“In a very unique way, we were reminded never to take ourselves too seriously.”

Singer Annie Lennox also made a speech to the “truly unique” and “quintessential visionary”.“There was no one and nothing else like him,” she said.

DRAKE AND RIHANNA DIRTY DANCE

Drake made a surprise appearance on the Brit Awards stage with Rihanna for some dirty dancing as the pair performed their hot new single Work.

There had been rumours Drake might turn up after the two were spotted partying in London together following the release of their two, equally racy, music videos.

AWARD WINNERS

Melbourne’s Courtney Barnett missed out on best international female artist to Bjork. The Icelandic artist appeared by video-link in a characteristically eyebrow-raising costume — involving a transparent plastic-like material over her face — to thank her fans.

Justin Beiber took out the best international male artist while One Direction won the British Video award.

Aussie band Tame Impala clinched the award for best international group, thanking their record label, management and someone called Lisa.

The rockers — who released their third album Currents last year — triumphed in front of a massive crowd at the O2 Arena in London.

They were up against Eagles of Death Metal who recently returned to the stage after the horrific Paris massacre.

Kylie, meanwhile, changed outfits to present the award for best British male solo artist, stunning in a flirty pink gown. James Bay took out the award.

Coldplay were named best British group while Catfish & the Bottlemen won the best breakthrough act.

Grammy winner Ed Sheeran had been up for best video and best single, while six-time Brit winners Coldplay were up for best group and best album for their seventh and possibly last LP, A Head Full of Dreams.

The Brit Awards unashamedly celebrate commercial success, but in an echo of the storm surrounding the Oscars, organisers have this year come under fire for the scarcity of black or ethnic minority nominees.

RED CARPET BUZZ

Earlier, all eyes were on the red carpet with Kylie, Rihanna and Adele stunning in eye-catching ensembles.

Kylie turned heads in a D&G gown and wide-brimmed hat for her red carpet foray with new beau, Joshua Sasse, but there was one accessory that stood out — her new engagement bling.

Adele stunned in a gorgeous red gown — a far cry from her go-to black.

STAR-STUDDED: Brit Awards 2016

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RED CARPET FASHION

British rapper Stormzy, who won best Grime act at the Mobo (Music of Black Origin) awards in 2014 and 2015 and who had a top 10 hit last year, said he was disappointed his kind of music was not celebrated.

“You know when you’ve got that little bit of hope and that little bit of faith and then they didn’t,” he told BBC Radio 1.

Laura Mvula, a soul singer short-listed for the critic’s choice award at the 2013 Brits, told the BBC she would not be attending this year because of “the diversity issue”.

Organisers said the Brits tended to honour artists “who have achieved the very highest levels of chart success”, but acknowledged that it might be time to take a “fresh look” at how the nominees are chosen.

They announced plans for a new advisory committee to help them more effectively acknowledge diverse talent.

Alexis Petridis, the Guardian newspaper’s rock and pop critic, has accused the Brits of “making British pop music look more boring than it actually is”.

He said the absence of grime artists in particular gave the impression that British music is “an endless sea of rounded-edge singer-songwriters, derivative pop-house and middling, putatively ‘alt’ rock”.

Award organisers have promised a “fitting tribute” to David Bowie, with rumours of a performance by an A-list supergroup.

Lady Gaga set the bar high with an extravagant tribute at the Grammys, but media reports suggest former Britpop rivals Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn, Bono, Coldplay and Adele could all unite for the British send-off.

Bowie won best British male at the 2014 Brits, 30 years after he first won the award, but sent model Kate Moss to collect it, dubbing her his “representative on Earth”.

The award ceremony regularly draws big names, including Madonna, who last year made headlines when she fell off the stage in an accident she blamed on her Armani cape.

Catch all the action of The BRIT Awards tonight on UKTV from 8.30pm.

Originally published as Adele drops a teary F-bomb