Billboard UK
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The “Powerpuff Girls of Pop” descended on Barcelona, Spain this past weekend (June 5-7).
The BRIT Awards will move to Manchester in 2026 and 2027, marking the first time the ceremony has taken place outside of London in its nearly-50 year history.
Co-op Live, the venue operated by Oak View Group, will host the event on Feb. 28, 2026 and be broadcast live on ITV 1 and ITV X; 2027’s date is yet to be confirmed.
The 2025 event was held in March at The O2 Arena in London, the ceremony’s home since 2012. The BRITs has been held at various venues in the capital including Earl’s Court (1996-2011), Alexandra Palace (1993-1995) and The Grosvenor Hotel (1982-1987).
The first event in 1977 was held at the Wembley Conference Centre, and the BRITs became a yearly occurrence from 1982 onwards; the 2021 event was the first major event to take place in the U.K. following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic a year prior.
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2026 marks the first event of the three-year stewardship under Sony Music U.K.; stewardship rotates between the three major labels, with the BRIT Committee overseeing the show’s creative direction. Damian Christian, the managing director and president of promotions at Atlantic Records, a Warner Music subsidiary, served as the chair of the BRIT Committee from 2022-2025.
“Moving to Manchester, the home of some of the most iconic and defining artists of our lifetime, will invigorate the show and build on the BRITs legacy of celebrating and reinvesting in world-class music,” says Jason Isley MBE, chairman and CEO, Sony Music U.K. & Ireland. “Hosting the show in Manchester, with its vibrant cultural history, perfectly captures the spirit and energy of the BRIT Awards. I can’t wait to see the show at the amazing state-of-the art Co-op Live venue.”
Despite a beleaguered opening which saw delays and cancellation of shows in April 2024, the Co-op Live has since established itself as a key player in the U.K. live music scene. In 2024, the venue hosted the MTV EMAs, and 2025’s live slate includes Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler, The Creator and more. The venue’s 23,500 capacity makes it the largest indoor arena in Europe.
Tim Leiweke, co-founder and CEO of Oak View Group said: “The BRITs are the most important music event in the UK and were always the highlight of the year, not only because of its immense cultural contribution, but because of their commitment to improving the lives of youth through music. It is our honour to partner with our friends at BPI and Sony Music, alongside the great city of Manchester, to host the BRITs at Co-op Live and join in their mission to create opportunities for youth through music.”
The BRIT Awards regularly pulls big name performers, with 2025’s ceremony boasting live performances by Sabrina Carpenter, Lola Young, Teddy Swims and Sam Fender. Charli XCX, meanwhile, collected five awards on the night, including album of the year.
The move follows the relocation of the MOBO Awards in recent years to Coventry (2021) and Sheffield (2024), and the Mercury Prize which is set to be hosted in Newcastle’s Utilita Arena in September 2025.
The U.K.’s summer of live music kicked off in earnest this week with a number of huge tour debuts throughout major cities, particularly in London. Over at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday (June 5), Beyoncé brought her Cowboy Carter tour to these shores for the first time, and a day later, Robbie Williams was […]
Ed Sheeran’s +–=÷× (Tour Collection) is back at No. 1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart on Friday (June 6) as excitement builds for his new LP, Play.
The collection is made up of Sheeran’s hits from his Mathematical series of records: 2011’s + (Plus), 2014’s × (Multiply), 2017’s ÷ (Divide), 2021’s = (Equals), and 2023’s – (Subtract). A number of songs from 2019’s standalone No.6 Collaboration Project, including songs with Justin Bieber (“I Don’t Care”) and Rudimental (“Lay It On Me”), also feature on the tracklist.
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The LP was released in September 2024 and first hit the top spot back in January, remaining in the top 10 ever since. On Sept. 12, Sheeran will share his new studio album, Play, his eighth, and on Thursday (June 5), he shared the latest taster of the record with “Sapphire,” following previous singles “Azizam” and “Old Phone.”
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As she shares the Jack Antonoff-produced single “Manchild” and headlines Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, Spain, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet holds steady at No. 2 and earns a 41st week on the chart.
Miley Cyrus’ ninth LP, Something Beautiful, is the week’s highest new entry at No. 3; she has hit the top spot only twice in her career with 2013’s Bangerz and 2023’s Endless Summer Vacation. Greatest hits collections by Fleetwood Mac (50 Years – Don’t Stop, No. 4) and The Weeknd (The Highlights, No. 5) complete the top five.
Following news of her reacquisition of her masters, Taylor Swift’s Reputation (2017) enjoys a 63-position leap up to No. 7, experiencing a 146% week-on-week uplift. Reputation and her self-titled debut are the only LPs from her Big Machine era not to be re-recorded by Swift, and fans are uncertain whether Reputation will get the Taylor’s Version treatment. (Taylor Swift has already been “completely re-recorded,” according to the superstar.) Albums from Garbage (Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, No. 24) and The National frontman Matt Berninger (Get Sunk, No. 27) also make top 40 debuts.
Alex Warren has reached new heights with a record-breaking moment for “Ordinary” as he secures a 12th consecutive week at the summit of the U.K. Singles Chart on Friday (June 6). He is now the U.S. male solo act with the longest-running continuous stay at No. 1, besting Slim Whitman, who lasted 11 consecutive weeks […]
Billboard’s The Stage hit SXSW London on Thursday night (June 5), marking the first time the event took place in the U.K. The show at the capital’s Troxy was headlined by Lagos-born, London-based superstar Tems, a day after she collected the Diamond Award at the Global Power Players Event alongside Sir Elton John and EMPIRE […]
Tems accepts the Diamond award from Yati Khumalo at SXSW London 2025. Penske Media Corporation (which also owns Billboard) and film and production company MRC became investment partners of SXSW in 2021. Penske took majority ownership of SXSW two years later. Yati Khumalo:Created in partnership with the Botswana Investment and Trade Center, the Diamond Award […]
Billboard hosted its first Global Power Players event in London on Wednesday night, where Elton John and his husband and manager David Furnish, EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi Shami and Afrobeats superstar Tems were recognized with special awards. John and Furnish collected the Creators’ Champion Award, with John saying in his speech, “Supporting the next […]
Billboard hosted its inaugural Global Power Players event in London on Wednesday (June 4) to celebrate music industry leaders from across the world.
The invite-only event at Shoreditch House in east London honored the chosen executives for the Global Power Players list and the first-ever U.K. Power Players selections. Huge names including Sir Elton John and his husband and manager David Furnish, EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi Shami and afrobeats superstar Tems were recognised with special awards.
John and Furnish collected the Creators’ Champion Award, and John used his speech to warn the U.K. government that “we will not back down” in relation to the Labour party’s controversial AI bill, which proposes an opt-out approach for music rights holders. Key industry figures such as John have called upon the government to work with the creative industries to find a solution; the government’s bill has been rejected by the House of Lords on five occasions in recent weeks.
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“Copyright has to be transparent and seek permission,” John said. “These two principles are the bedrock of the industry and they must be included in the data bill as a backstop. Let’s be clear: we want to work with the government, we want our government to work with us. We are not anti-AI and we are not anti-Big Tech.”
He added: “I will fight for this until it’s done and people have a fair deal. Every young artist or new person who writes a song, I want them to have a future and have their copyright respected.”
Ahead of her headline set for Billboard Presents The Stage as part of SXSW London on Thursday (June 5), Tems collected the Diamond Award from incoming Billboard Africa editor Nkosiyati Khumalo.
“Being African and a musician is a whole new world and I feel like Billboard has been so supportive of not just African music but the whole scene and the culture,” she said. “This has been a really great honor, especially given that that African music is moving to heights that has never been seen before, and Billboard is one of the key players in moving that needle forward.”
EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi Shami was the recipient of the coveted Clive Davis Visionary Award, joining TDE’s Punch and Top Dawg (2024), Bang Si-hyuk (2023) and Joe Smith (2014) as honorees. Named after the iconic recording executive, the prize was presented by Nigerian musician and YNBL label boss Olamide, and follows EMPIRE alum Shaboozey’s record-busting stay atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Collecting the award, Ghazi said: “I often tell people that EMPIRE is a philanthropy company masquerading as a record label. I truly believe that in my heart. It wasn’t always that way. Being a visionary means you see a need in your community and you try and figure out how to serve that need. I felt that the San Francisco and the Bay Area community had a void in the music distribution space and fast-forward 15 years later, I’m blessed to say we built a global operation that reaches the four corners of the earth. We have employees in 25 countries and have probably the most diverse staff in the music business by design and intention.”
He added, “I grew up as an immigrant kid in San Francisco with Palestinian parents who were refugees of war, and sometimes as a child I often felt like I was invisible. How would I be seen in a world that didn’t see me? I took the initiative to build a company where everyone could be seen and everyone could be heard and I always like to tell people that if you’re excellent they can’t deny your existence.”
Sir Elton John collected the Creators’ Champion Award at Billboard’s Global Power Players event in London on Wednesday (June 4) and used his speech to warn the U.K. government that “we will not back down” in relation to its controversial AI data bill.
Joined by his manager and husband David Furnish, John was awarded the inaugural trophy by Billboard editor-in-chief Hannah Karp in recognition for standing up for the creative industry and calling for fair usage and protections for music rights holders in relation to AI models.
As referenced in John’s speech, the Labour government’s data bill – which proposes an opt-out approach for rights holders, as opposed to the preferred opt-in strategy – has been voted down by the House of Lords for an unprecedented fifth time. Led by Baroness Kidron, the ping-pong between the Houses of Commons and the upper house has lasted for weeks and resulted in John calling the government “absolute losers” in a recent interview.
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Taking to the stage, John thanked Billboard for the accolade as he was honored alongside other industry leaders such as Empire’s Ghazi and Tems on the night. “Supporting the next generation of British artists is the one of the major driving forces in my life,” he said and thanked the Lords who backed the amendment saying “you rock.”
He continued: “The onus is now on the government to do the right thing and have transparency added to the bill. We’ve asked them so many times to come to us. We’ve had so many meetings with them saying that we wanted to work with you.
“Copyright has to be transparent and seek permission,” he continued. “These two principles are the bedrock of the industry and they must be included in the data bill as a backstop. Let’s be clear: We want to work with the government, we want our government to work with us. We are not anti-AI and we are not anti-Big Tech.”
John added in his passionate speech: “We are not against Labour and we want a solution. We want to bring all parties together in a way that is transparent and fair and allows artists to maintain control of their work.” He concluded: “We will not back down and we will not go away quietly. This is just the beginning.”
Read the full speech below.
Elton John’s full speech at Billboard‘s Global Power Players event
“Thank you to Billboard for honoring myself and David with this incredible award. Supporting the next generation of British artists is one of the major driving forces in my life. It’s so important. As everyone in this room is aware, the data bill is currently looming over us and our musicians and our industries and the future of the livelihood of all artists.
It is an existential issue. In the last few hours the government has been defeated for an unprecedented fifth time by the House of Lords – that’s never happened before. The Lords, who have backed our crucial amendment to the bill – thank you so much – you rock.
The onus is now on the government to do the right thing and have transparency added to the bill. We’ve asked them so many times to come to us. We’ve had so many meetings with them saying that we wanted to work with you. I voted for you, you promised me that you wanted to get young artists into Europe. I did a show for you and to get more finance into the country and investment. I did a show at St Paul’s Cathedral… and we’ve heard nothing.
Copyright has to be transparent and seek permission. These two principles are the bedrock of the industry and they must be included in the data bill as a backstop. Let’s be clear: we want to work with the government, we want our government to work with us. We are not anti-AI and we are not anti-Big Tech.
We are not against Labour and we want a solution. We want to bring all parties together in a way that is transparent and fair and allows artists to maintain control of their work. It’s so fucking important. A machine is not a human being; it doesn’t have a soul. An artist when they create or they write or they sculpt or they paint or they photograph has a soul, it’s coming from the feeling of a person. And it’s so important if we ever lose that, we are well and truly fucked.
We will not back down and we will not go away quietly. This is just the beginning and thank you Billboard and Baroness Kidron for standing up for our world beating artists and journalists and playwrights and authors.
Let’s put it like this: The entertainment industry brings £125 billion to the United Kingdom and is the second biggest industry in this Great Britain. And they are treating us like shit. They are treating us like idiots. They have their head in the sand. The Labour government at the moment should be called the Ostrich Party. I will fight for this until it’s done and people have a fair deal. Every young artist or new person who writes a song, I want them to have a future and have their copyright respected.
There’s 2.4 million people in this industry in Britain, and 70% of them live outside of London. This isn’t a case of wealthy London people, this is a nationwide thing. Please listen to us, government. If you don’t, there’s going to be trouble. If you don’t, I will come banging on your door. But let’s get together: give me a call! Let’s have a cup of tea! So far, you haven’t responded to anything we’ve suggested. Thank you!”