Head Over Heels For Madonna

What looked like Madge’s attempt at a somersault lacked the titillation of Janet Jackson’s momentary exposure at the 2004 Super Bowl or even Beyonce dancing her way out of her dress at last year’s Global Citizen Festival in New York City, but it was enough to get the next day’s headlines from the annual bash at London’s 02 Arena.

The 56-year-old singing star appeared to tumble down a small set of steps when a dancer tried to remove the cape that she was wearing.

It was a tribute to her professionalism and modern sound technology that her vocal continued after the audible thud of her microphone hitting the floor.

She later issued a statement saying that she was fine and the cape had been “tied too tight.”

“If the ceremony proved anything, it was that the Brit awards themselves are substantially less interesting than watching someone fall over,” Alexis Petridis wrote in The Guardian.

The TV audience for the show has been falling steadily, and last year an average of only 4.6 million were tuned to the ITV broadcast.

Those figures were about the same as when it had a ratings collapse in 2006, prompting the television network to screen live broadcasts of subsequent shows in a bid to boost the ratings.

“A mainstream British music award that recognises The Spice Girls and Steps but overlooks The Rolling Stones, Radiohead and Led Zeppelin is not fit for purpose “, was Neil McCormick’s verdict in The Daily Telegraph.

“In awarding the biggest-selling artists of the year, the Brit Awards has become televised advertorial for major music labels”, he said, claiming that “the only truly spontaneous moment at the BRIT awards when she [Madonna] fell over during a balletic bullfight.

“There no longer appears to be any distance between the British sales charts and the Brit Awards”, he wrote.

Ed Sheeran (Best Album and Best Male Solo Artist) and Sam Smith (British Breakthrough Act and Global Success) each took a couple of prizes.

Royal Blood got Best British Group, ahead of Alt-J, Clean Bandit, Coldplay, and One Direction, while Best International Act went to Foo Fighters.

The other winners included Paloma Faith, Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson, Paul.