Brit Awards viewers were left a little confused on Wednesday night, when Ed Sheeran was announced as the recipient of the Global Success award for the second year running.
Each year, the Global Success prize is given to the UK artist who has made a big splash overseas, with past recipients including Sam Smith, Adele, One Direction and… oh, that’s it actually.
For the second time in as many years, Ed was revealed to have been the winner of the Global Success prize, for the huge success of his third album Divide.
You know, the one that was released in March 2017.
Unsurprisingly, we weren’t the only ones who were a little taken aback that Ed was the winner for two years running without having released new music, with many voicing their feelings about the whole thing on Twitter...
However, as host Jack Whitehall pointed out, Ed received the award because of the huge sales Divide accrued in the last 12 months, despite being just shy of two years old.
Ed also spent much of 2018 touring the world to promote the album, including stadium shows all over the UK last summer.
And fortunately for him, there were a lot of fans happy to see him snag the Global Success award…
Ed was unable to collect the award in person, but did pre-record a speech, saying: “Thank you so much for my Global Success award. It really, really means a lot. I’m sorry I can’t be there today, I’m currently in South America on tour. But I hope that everyone is having a fantastic time.”
Aside from Ed, The 1975 and Calvin Harris were the biggest winners at this year’s Brits, each taking home two awards.
Dua Lipa, Jess Glynne and Anne-Marie had been the top nominees, with each of them being in the running for four different awards, but of the three, only Dua left a winner, taking home Best British Single for her Calvin Harris collaboration One Kiss.
They also performed the track during the ceremony, sharing the stage with Sam Smith and Rag’n’Bone Man, who each sang their own Calvin collabs.
