Raye storms Brits early with four awards

Raye has enjoyed early success at the Brits by storming the competition with four awards so far.

On Saturday night at the O2 Arena, the British singer-songwriter won the R&B, best new artist and song of the year prizes.

She had already been named songwriter of the year – the first woman to do so.

The prize, which began in 2022, has previously been won by Suffolk singer Ed Sheeran and British record producer Kid Harpoon, who worked with Harry Styles on the album Harry’s House.

Raye is now level with the record for the most number of Brits won in one award year with Blur, Harry Styles and Adele.

Accepting the song of the year award for Escapism featuring 070 Shake, Raye said she was “shaking”.

She added: “I don’t really know what to say, thank you to my team, I’ve always wanted to say thank you to my team.”

Raye also said that “no-one would take me” before her music distributors agreed to back her.

When she took home the first R&B Brit Award, Raye recalled that she “was told a lie that R&B didn’t sell in the UK” and thanked Mahalia for campaigning for the new category.

Jungle were named group of the year and Bring Me The Horizon won the best alternative/rock act award.

Collecting their first Brit, frontman Oli Sykes said: “We don’t know what to say, we didn’t think we would be winning this.

“Thanks to the Brits for making a voting system so complicated only our fans could be arsed to vote.”

Award presenters included former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton and Monica Dolan, the actress who portrayed her in ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.

Opening the show in black leather-style shorts and a jacket, Dua Lipa and her dancers performed an acrobatic display while she sang Training Ground.

Performers were lowered from the ceiling as Lipa belted out her 2024 hit song and at one point, she went airborne with the help of a ring.

The Brit Awards 2024 is being broadcast live on ITV1 and ITVX.