Wednesday saw the 34th Brit Award Ceremony take place at the 02 arena and broadcast live across the world for the first time. Here’s my take on the events of the evening.

The Brits 2014 saw a massive drop in ratings – 2 million less people than last year. Yet, in my opinion, the 2014 Brits were a million times better than last year’s rather dull affair. Bizarre acceptance speeches, electric performances, dodgy jokes and self promotion riddled this years ceremony but in a way that made fantastic entertainment. The Brits has a reputation for generating and attracting controversy but that’s part of what makes it so endearing.

James Corden did a wonderful job of presenting once again, moving the show along nicely aided by a few funny gags and some spontaneous quips (a selfie with Prince and a pinch of a member of the Arctic Monkeys’ bum were particular highlights). Whilst not everyone was equally pleased with some of his remarks, I think James was awesome once again and I will greatly miss him hosting The Brits. He’s not overly controversial, a great guy, loves his music and funny with it. I hope whoever is lined up to present next year’s Brits will be able to bring something original to the table.

Performance-wise, whilst this year’s list of performers perhaps looked a little dull on paper, there were some great performances. Katy Perry delivered a theatrical Egyptian-themed performance of new track ‘Dark Horse’, which, despite the song not being her strongest release, managed to entertain. Bruno Mars took to the stage to sing the fantastically catchy ‘Treasure’ in which, whilst being an amazing performance, one must question whether this was a performance by Bruno or by The Bruno Mars band. There was very little solo by Mr Mars himself, instead, he was joined by an assemble of men to the point it rather looked and sounded like a Boyz II Men super-group on-stage. Beyonce appeared in a stunning, sparkly green gown to perform powerful new single ‘XO’. Disclosure managed to significantly improve incredibly scary Lorde’s ‘Royals’ by transforming it into a house track and Pharrell Williams gave a great rendition of ‘Happy’ with a little help from funk royalty Nile Rodgers.

As for the awards themselves, there were no major surprises. Daft Punk inevitably collected ‘International Group’ award after an amazingly successful year. Rudimental took home a gong for club-crazy ‘Waiting all night’ for Best British Single. One Direction won an award for a seemingly tailored-just-for-them ‘Brits Global Success Award’ in addition to ‘Best British Video’. Whilst many ridicule them, the lads certainly deserved these awards, particularly the latter, although there wasn’t any strong competition as the other Video nominations were incredibly weak and unoriginal. At least ‘Best Song Ever’ was unique, comedic and well-written/directed. Arctic Monkeys also took home two awards for Best British Group and Best British Album whilst Best British Breakthrough Act went to Bastille. Lorde appeared rather creepily onstage again to collect International Female Solo Artist whilst Bruno Mars received the male equivalent. Best British Female artist was won by Ellie Goulding whilst Best British Male was deservedly won by David Bowie.

What was perhaps most interesting this year were the presenters of the awards and the acceptance speeches. Pop royalty Prince appeared with new band 3RDEYEGIRL which was really awesome, Katy Perry returned onstage to present an award, Tinie Tempah was rather oddly paired with Fearne Cotton, Emeli Sande couldn’t keep away from The Brits, Pharell and Kylie, Jimmy Carr, glamour model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Lily Allen,  Cesc Fabregas and Nicole Scherzinger, Grimmy (who passionately snogged James Corden on live telly) and Noel Gallagher. We were subjected to excessive plugs of new releases and dresses and suits for the ceremony. A confused Lily Allen struggled to comprehend her role whilst Jimmy Carr attempted three feeble jokes after which the silence was deafening. Katy Perry asked the audience if they would be attending her tour later this year to which she received a wall of silence. Kate Moss accepted David Bowie’s award on behalf of the man himself, reading a witty speech he had written in which he managed to somewhat randomly incorporate his political views (‘Stay with us Scotland.’) A rather drunk and/or stoned Alex Taylor slurred through an egocentric rant on ‘Rock n roll’, looking as if he wished to be anywhere but there.

The issue is, whilst this was all great in the name of entertainment, it just reinforced the view of many. That The Brits is less about the music and more about self-promotion and entertainment. Few of the acceptance speeches were genuinely thankful, many highly successful artists were overlooked in nominations and quite frankly, some of the song nominations were bizarre.

There is no denying that it was an entertaining show, however and a drastic improvement on last year’s bore. So, another year, another Brits over. I already look forward to next year’s!