The Q Awards ceremony took place yesterday afternoon (October 24th) at Grosvenor House Hotel in London, with singer-songwriter Adele picking up the maximum two awards from her three nominations.
After a year of huge commercial and critical success stemming from her second album 21, Adele picked up the Q Awards for Best Female Artist and Best Track (for ‘Rolling in the Deep’) at the ceremony, which in practice was a clean sweep as her third nomination was in the same category for ‘Someone Like You’. Coldplay were named Best Act in the World Today, while U2 were given the accolade of Greatest Act of the Last 25 Years. Recently successful solo artist Noel Gallagher was awarded the special title of Q Icon, rock legends Queen were added to the Q Hall of Fame, and Lana Del Rey was named the Q Next Big Thing.
None of the other three-nomination artists could win more than one award: Ed Sheeran won Best Breakthrough Artist, but lost Best Male Artist to Tinie Tempah and Best Video to Jessie J; Jessie J herself won Best Video for ‘Do It Like a Dude’, falling short of Best Breakthrough Artist to Ed Sheeran and Best Female Artist to Adele; while Arctic Monkeys missed out on Best Track to Adele, Best Album to Bon Iver, and Best Act in the World Today to Coldplay.
Perhaps the biggest shocks of the evening were in Best Album, won by Bon Iver ahead of such albums as the Mercury Prize-winning Let England Shake and Elbow’s critically acclaimed Let’s Build a Rocket Boys!; Best Male Artist, won by Tinie Tempah despite strong opposition from Ed Sheeran and Example; and Best New Act, where WU LYF edged out such acts as Foster the People and The Vaccines.
The full list of winners can be seen here.
