But they had said it would be the best selling act I think, that's how everyone had understood and accepted it when we all thought Adele would come on top. So why change it to please all the people who would not like the result in the end?

They obviously didn't want to give best band to 1D, nobody expected that anyway.

3 UK acts had done extremely well in America and abroad, and they decided to add a new category to highlight those achievements. Why not celebrate that?
Did they know who would come on top from the start? I dont know. Was that just a sneaky way to give something to 1D? That's a point of view I guess...
I think that the british acts making it in the US after Adele's 2011 amazing year over there might have inspired them for this award, but maybe I am just naive.

and merchandise...


and record-breaking DVD sales...

You're far too sweet and reasonable to be posting on the main forum, annushka. I'm glad that the fans are seeing this award as a positive, though. I personally have been suspicious about it from the start and I'd much rather have seen 1D win Best Group as the other acts in that category were terrible, IMO, and at least 1D have a sense of fun about them. I just dislike the snobbery of the Brits and that's why I don't see the award as something good. But everyone's entitled to their opinion on why it's been included this year and I absolutely see where you're coming from. Well done to the boys, and let's hope they mange to beat the snooze-fest of Mumfords and Alt-J next year.

One word for some people on here BITTER!

Who were the other nominees?

Mumford and Sons
Adele

When 1D win a grammy, then i'll happily eat humble pie and admit i'm bitter. But I won't be holding my breath on that.

You don't come across as bitter at all.

firstly, thank you for thinking of the boys as would-be deserved winners of this year's "best british group" amongst the nominees.


as a 1D fan, i'm happy with the Global Success Award as it is some form of recognition in itself anyway-- but most of all, just for the rather titillating thought that the Brits panel had to actually bend over backwards just to give an award to this upstart boyband, lolz!!

I agree that it's sad that 1D had no chance in hell to win the best band category because they are a boyband from the X factor. I understand why you resent the snobbery of some award shows, especially when you see that they might not mind awarding Rihanna... (no idea if she won this year, but I don't see the Brits pannel minding giving Rihanna a brit while they would more than drag their feet to do the same for 1D).

But I belong to those who really thought the global success was for Adele, to make up for cutting her speech last year.
It's funny how different the point of views about this award were.

And as always, thank you for your kind reply Elly.

Seems like other posters believe this award was made up for them. If fellow posters on ds are anything to go by, then this isn't the first time this has happened.

The 'Global Success' award isn't even a thing. It was created so that One Direction could win something - there were no other nominees, etc.

The nominees were:

Adele
Mumford and Sons
One Direction

Britain's 3 biggest music exports last year.
Award was based on total world wide record sales for last year. Adele was the favourite to win it, as most assumed because she sold the most albums, she had it in the bag, but it was based on total records and 1D came up tops. Congrats boys!

But they never thought it was made up before they won though, because most assumed Adele had it in the bag.

I disagree with this bit. Don't you think such massive success deserves to be rewarded?? I'm no Directioner but if you're topping the charts around the world then you deserve to be rewarded in some form! It doesn't matter if it's Adele or 1D, somebody with that much success needs to be. Also 1D have had 2 #1 and top-selling albums in the US.

However, I do agree that the Brit Awards are a joke especially with Emeli winning everything. However, I realized this back in 2008 when Leona was nominated for four awards yet received NONE! Despite the fact that she was topping the charts globally in that year both with Bleeding Love and her album Spirit. She was also the first British female to top the US charts in 20 years! Yet she lost the best female award to nobody Kate Nash, international breakthrough to now-nobody MIKA (and less successful at the time), to Take That's WORST single AND to that horrible punt at an album by the Artic Monkeys.

Such music snobbery! Could not believe it!

Well, we all did, didn't we? At least I did...

And that's certainly a tremendous achievement for an album that came out the previous year.

And now some people seem to rewrite history (or well, how they perceived this award when it came out of nowhere) because Adele didn't win...

Singles and albums together, Adele sold way more than 1D worldwide in 2012. Just saying.

She didn't sell more singles, no.

...ah, yes, but how come they didn't mention these nominees on the show?

Don't know. But the nominees were announced at the launch a few months ago.

This was on the Brits official site:
BRITs Global Success Award
The winner of this Award will be announced at the Show on Wednesday 20th February.

But how can this be an award that is determined by vote. If it's based on sales then 1D were always gonna win, therefore people saying the award was made up. Also if it's going on combined sales of album and single's then surely Adele would have won. Or is her snubbing of the Brits due to last year swayed the award in 1D's favour.

combined sales for the year 2012.

My Mistake, I meant 2012.

Yes, and 1D sold the most records world wide (albums + singles) in 2012. Skyfall was the only single Adele released last year.

Some random acts : The Beatles, ABBA, Queen and Led Zeppelin.