Well, thank God for ITV and its passion for good time keeping at non-sport related events, ensuring there was at least a tiny little bit of scandal to spice up the 2012 BRIT Awards. The UK record industry’s annual back slapping fest has become a rather slick affair in recent years, especially since its move east to The O2, which makes for a good live show if you’re there, but pretty lacklustre television. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but for me, unless a bum is wiggled, a political leader drenched, or a pissed up DJ offends a rock icon, well, British music hasn’t been truly celebrated. And dragging Blur on stage for the finale surely only reminded older viewers of those heady days of BRIT Awards chaos in the 1990s.

But, just as it looked like the newspapers were going to have to lead with “everyone we thought would win won”, or possibly “George Michael sufficiently not dead to present an award”, ITV handed The Sun and The Mirror their front pages as it insisted host James Corden cut off the undeniable star of the evening, double award winner and Britain’s biggest selling singer of the moment, Adele, as she tried to deliver her second acceptance speech. It seems that if ITV viewers don’t get their scheduled news fix at 10pm they are liable to riot (word has it that’s what happened last August), and while Damon Albarn’s inane rambling earlier in the evening had probably pushed everything behind schedule in the first place, that was no reason to cut the Blur end-of-show set, “so get that bloody Adkins woman off the stage would you, Corden?”

Adkins, presumably inspired by MIA, gave the cameras the finger (a “fuck off” to the show’s producers, she later clarified), providing the perfect photo for what was now everyone’s lead BRITS story. So much so, the PR machine was in action by midnight, with ITV telling reporters “the BRITs is a live event. Unfortunately the programme was over running and we had to move on. We would like to apologise to Adele for the interruption”.

A BRITs spokesman added: “We regret this happened and we send our deepest apologies to Adele that her big moment was cut short this evening due to the live show over-running. We don’t want this to undermine her incredible achievement in winning our night’s biggest award. It tops off what’s been an incredible year for her”.

So there you go, “ITV and BRIT bosses conspire with Mastercard to embarrass Britain’s favourite singing sensation”. Thank God for that, prior to Cut-Short-Speech-Gate I had literally nothing to say about this year’s BRITs. And look, now I’ve managed 448 words without even saying, here’s a full list of this year’s winners…

British Male Solo Artist: Ed Sheeran
British Female Solo Artist: Adele
British Breakthrough Act: Ed Sheeran
British Group: Coldplay
Critics’ Choice: Emeli Sandé
British Producer: Ethan Johns

British Single: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
British Album: Adele – 21

International Male Solo Artist: Bruno Mars
International Female: Rihanna
International Group: Foo Fighters
International Breakthrough Act: Lana Del Rey

Outstanding Contribution To Music: Blur

Watch the video below to see Adele explain why she raised her middle finger after her acceptance speech was cut off:

And here they are everybody, the winners of this year’s MPG Awards, the annual bash staged by the Music Producers’ Guild, which includes the presentation of the first BRIT of the year, for best producer, which went to Ethan Johns. Full winners list as follows:

Producer Of The Year: Ethan Johns

Recording Engineer Of The Year: Geoff Foster
Mix Engineer Of The Year: Tom Elmhirst
Mastering Engineer Of The Year: Mandy Parnell
Remixer Of The Year: Jamie xx

International Producer Of The Year: Butch Vig
International Engineer Of The Year: Andrew Scheps

Breakthrough Producer of the Year: Yogi
Breakthrough Engineer of the Year: Tom Morris

UK Album Of The Year: PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
UK Single Of The Year: Adele – Rolling In The Deep
Live Production Of The Year: Radiohead – Live In Praha

Studio of the Year: Eastcote Studios

The Joe Meek Legacy Award: Steve Lillywhite
Outstanding Contribution to UK Music: Martin Mills
Unsung Hero: Crispin Murray
Special Recognition Award: Martin Rushent

Pan-European indie label trade body IMPALA has announced the shortlist for its European Independent Album Of The Year Award, the annual gong that was launched last year. A panel will now pick a winner from this list which will be announced on 29 Feb.

And the shortlisted albums are:

Adele – 21 (XL Recordings)
Ane Brun – It All Starts With One (Balloon Ranger Recordings)
Arrayan Path – Ira Imperium (Pitch Black Records)
Claude Hugo – Claude Hugo (Five-OMusic / Fakto Records)
Hladno Pivo – Svijet Glamura (Menart)
Iceage – New Brigade (Tambourhinoceros)
Justyna Majkowska – Zakochana Od Jutra (Anaconda)
Kaizers Orchestra – Violeta Violeta Vol 1 (Petroleum Records)
Kitty Daisy & Lewis – Smoking In Heaven (Sunday Best)
Little Dragon – Ritual Union (Peacefrog)
M83 – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming (Naïve)
Maia Vidal – God Is My Bike (Crammed Discs)
Modeselektor – Monkeytown (Monkeytown)
Nick & Simon – Symphonica In Rosso (Volendam Music)
Ocho Macho – Online A Vilag (CLS Music)
Pegasus – Human Technology (Muve Recordings)
Raphael Gualazzi – Reality And Fantasy (Sugar Music)
Rubik – Solar (Fullsteam)
Selah Sue – Selah Sue (Because Music)
SBTRKT – SBTRKT (Young Turks)
Sigur Ros – Inni (Krunk)
The Glockenwise – Building Waves (Lovers & Lollypops)
Vetusta Morla – Mapas (Pequeno Salto Mortal)

While last weekend’s Grammys (watched by their biggest TV audience since the 1980s) were dominated by all the Whitney celebrating, Adele’s mega-wins, and Nicki Minaj’s “what the fuck?” performance, there were other conversations going on around the peripheries also.

The decision by Grammy chiefs to cut some awards from the proceedings this year continued to cause some mild controversy, though it was another decision by the awards’ bosses that was pissing off some others among America’s music community: the decision to allow R&B wife-beater Chris Brown back ontheir stage just three years after he delivered one of the more memorable Grammy weekend performances, beating his pop star girlfriend unconscious in the street.

While some (and Brown’s always dedicated fan base especially) would say the R&B star has ‘done his time’ as it were (180 hours of community service) for beating Rihanna senseless, and that the world should therefore forgive and forget, others are concerned that no one has really forgotten, and therefore giving the singer a star billing at the Grammy awards show sends out a dangerous message.

After all, Brown’s criminal assault on his girlfriend three years ago will always be closely linked to the Grammy Awards, and the singer is still serving the five years of probation the US courts felt were required for his crime. Did the Grammy booking not say to the world, some wondered, “don’t worry about beating your girlfriend unconscious at our party, sell a few records and give it three years, and we’ll make you guest of honour”?

Sasha Pasulka perhaps best summarised that viewpoint in a piece for Zooey Deschanel’s HelloGiggles website titled ‘I’m not okay with Chris Brown performing at the Grammys and I’m not sure why you are’. She was unsurprisingly unimpressed with Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich justifying booking Brown by saying: “I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years [actually, two] and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened”.

After stating the obvious flaws with Ehrlich’s statement, Pasulka notes: “We – the grown-up influencers in this country, the people with platforms and with educations and with power – are allowing a clear message to be sent to women: We will easily forgive a person who victimises you. We are able to look beyond the fact that you were treated as less than human, that a bigger, stronger person decided to resolve a conflict with you through violence. We know it happened, but it’s just not that big of a deal to us”.

Although the arguable scandal of Brown’s Grammy booking and two performances on the night didn’t get much media coverage, some did express their concerns or outrage via Twitter, among them country star Miranda Lambert, who knows a thing or two about the impact domestic violence has on its victims, her parents running a shelter for abused women. She tweeted: “Chris Brown twice? I don’t get it. He beat on a girl… Not cool that we act like that didn’t happen”.

The Twitter criticism didn’t go unnoticed by Brown himself, who didn’t seem so happy that some in the Grammy audience were still focusing on his Rihanna beating escapades rather than his lacklustre pop songs. So much so, the singer seemingly took to Twitter himself to respond, though said tweets were later removed, possibly because the R&B star calmed down, or possibly because the same advisors who told Brown to big up the “remorse thing” when his assault case went to court, told him to play down the “gloating thing” now that the American pop establishment has reappointed him as its approved bad boy.

Seemingly there were several tweets, though only one was grabbed by Mashable before its deletion – it reading: “HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY NOW! That’s the ultimate fuck off! I’m back so watch my back as I walk away from all this negativity”. So that’s nice. On the upside, I don’t think he smashed any windows this time.

All five members of the original Guns N Roses line-up, Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler, will attend the band’s induction into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame in April. Or so says the band’s current keyboard player, Dizzy Reed. Although it’s not the first time someone has made that claim, and previously a denial quickly followed.

As previously reported, in December last year Hall Of Fame CEO Joel Peresman said: “Who will be invited, obviously, is the original five, and Dizzy and Matt. All have RSVP’d that they will show. Everyone’s said they’re coming”.

But Slash, who was presumably part of the “everyone” Perseman referred to, then tweeted: “For the record, I didn’t RSVP, or in any way commit to attending the RRHF”.

But now Reed, who first joined the band in 1990 making him the longest serving member after Axl Rose, says that everyone is now on board. “I know that all the original band is going to be there”, he told Billboard. “I don’t know exactly what’s going to go down. It’s one of those things I’m sure will all come together and be really cool. I’m just going to go in with a good attitude and a clear head and a grateful heart”.

Even if all the original members do end up attending the Hall Of Fame party, the prospect of them all standing on stage together seems unthinkable, and a live performance even more so. Can Reed shed any light on that matter? No. “Honestly, we haven’t spoken about it”, he said. “I don’t know when or why or how to bring it up. It’s not an every day sort of thing. So we haven’t really talked about it – but I’m sure we’ll have to [stand together] at some point”.

So, that’s something to look forward to.

Although this year’s Grammys ceremony became something of an impromptu tribute show in honour of the late Whitney Houston, who died this weekend, in terms of number of awards the night belonged to Adele Adkins, who won six gongs in total, including some of the key prizes like Album and Song Of The Year.

The latter went to ‘Rolling In The Deep’, which Adkins co-wrote with producer Paul Epworth, who also picked up a Grammy all of his own, after being declared Producer Of The Year for his work with Adele, Foster The People and Cee Lo Green. So, all in all, a good night for the Brits. The parents of Amy Winehouse were also in LA to pick up a posthumous Grammy for the singer for Best Duo, for her duet with Tony Bennett, who also accepted the prize on the late singer’s behalf.

In terms of gong count, Foo Fighters came in second, taking five awards in total, while Kanye West, Bon Iver, Skrillex, Cee Lo Green and Taylor Swift all also won multiple prizes. All the winners have now been tagged on this page on the Grammys website.

So, two acts were handed lifetime achievement prizes at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards this week, Don McLean and The Dubliners, as the annual folky gongs bash was hosted outside of London town for the very first time, taking place at the Lowry Centre in Salford. In the main categories, June Tabor and Oysterband dominated, winning four awards between them for the album they released together last year ‘Ragged Kingdom’. So well done them.

Coming up, winners. But first Radio 2 boss Bob Shennan with some words: “Folk music is enjoying a fantastic resurgence in popularity in the UK with a vibrant and varied scene. Tonight’s event proves once again how important it is for Radio 2 to schedule our annual Folk Awards as well as our weekly folk show, and I’d like to congratulate all of the winners”.

Folk Singer Of The Year: June Tabor
Best Duo: Tim Edey & Brendan Power
Best Group: June Tabor & Oysterband

Best Album: June Tabor & Oysterband – Ragged Kingdom
Best Original Song (Joint Winners): Bella Hardy – The Herring Girl, Steve Tilston – The Reckoning
Best Traditional Track: June Tabor & Oysterband – Bonny Bunch Of Roses

Horizon Award: Lucy Ward
Musician Of The Year: Tim Edey
Best Live Act: The Home Service
BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award: Ioscaid
Lifetime Achievement Awards: The Dubliners, Don Mclean
Good Tradition Awards: Ian Campbell, Bill Leader
Roots Award: Malcolm Taylor

The nominations for Canada’s big music awards, the Junos, have been announced. Though not quite as ridiculous as the Grammys, there’s still loads of categories here, so if you’re interested we suggest you check out the full list of noms on the award event’s own website, here.

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver has revealed that he has been writing songs with Alicia Keys, with an ultimate aim to one day collaborate with other artists en masse.

Speaking to USA today, the singer-songwriter says: “I have a big idea to do an American songbook of the greatest women singers. There are so many: Casey [Dienel] from White Hinterland, Bonnie Raitt, Alicia”. He also adds that he’d like to release an all-star “one-off charity album”, since such a project would offer “an excuse to work with a bunch of people that I’d [like] to work with, all at once”.

Though partial to the odd well-chosen studio partnership (Vernon shares various co-credits with St Vincent, Lia Ices, James Blake, Kanye West and, most recently, the Flaming Lips), it seems he and his Bon Iver bandmates didn’t take to the idea of performing with a fellow artiste at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony, at which they are nominated in four categories.

He tells Billboard: “We wanted to play our music, but we were told that we couldn’t play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else. And we just felt like it was such a large stage. We’re getting nominated for this record that we made, me and Brian [Joseph] and a bunch of our fucking friends, and we were given accolades for it. And all of a sudden we were being asked to play music that had nothing to do with that. We kind of said ‘fuck you’ a little bit and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don’t think they wanted us to play”.

Vernon, who in the past has been very vocal (and not to mention, less than complimentary) about his personal attitude towards all-things Grammy, also passed comment on an advert, as soundtracked by Bon Iver’s ‘Holocene’, that’s set to air during a commercial break in the TV transmission of the awards show.

He says: “There’s a big misunderstanding – I don’t want to sell music. But if people are going to be selling music, and they want to sell our music without disturbing the medium of what it actually is, we want to fucking do that. I want people to hear the music that we make. I don’t want to do it in any shitty way”.

You’ll find these, and many more baffling remarks, in this here Billboard interview.

I hope Martin Mills has got a big shelf in his office at Beggars HQ, with all the awards he’s been getting of late. And that shelf will need to accommodate another gong, because pan-European indie label trade body IMPALA yesterday announced it too was presenting an Outstanding Contribution Award to Mills, for his creative and commercial achievements at Beggars, and his wider work and support for the independent music community.

IMPALA launched its annual Outstanding Contribution Award last year, to celebrate the achievements of indie music players, and this year two such awards will be presented. As well as Mills, a prize will be given to the Label Love project, which staged various activities to support the labels affected by the fire at the Sony DADC warehouse in North London, which burned to the ground during the August riots, taking with it the entire stock of indie label distributor [PIAS].

IMPALA Executive Chair told CMU: “With Martin’s success this year there could only be one label winner, but the spontaneity and generosity of the Label Love initiative meant we had to break the rules and have two awards this year”.

The shortlist is out for this year’s Australian Music Prize, which – it’s compulsory for me to remind you – is a sort of Aussie Mercury Music Prize. The shortlisted albums are as follows:

Abbe May – Design Desire
Adalita – Adalita
Boy & Bear – Moonfire
Gotye – Making Mirrors
Gurrumul – Rralaka
Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders – Hurtsville
The Jezabels – Prisoner
Kimbra – Vows
The Middle East – I Want That You Are Always Happy

The winner, who will receive 30 thousand Aussie dollars, will be announced on 8 Mar.

It may be February, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for one more of those ‘new artists who should be big this year’ type polls. MTV got its viewers to vote for their favourite new acts from a short list published in December, and the final top ten is listed below.

Leading the way is Brighton-based pop boy and EMI-signed Conor Maynard, who has been dubbed Britain’s answer to both Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake (we’re guessing the nineteen year old would prefer the latter comparison).

Speaking of his win in the MTV Brand New poll, which has previously tipped then emerging acts like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Tinie Tempah and Jessie J for big things, Maynard told reporters: “It’s such an amazing feeling winning MTV’s Brand New 2012. I can’t thank the fans and viewers enough for voting, and MTV for selecting me in the first place! Hope this is the first success of many to come!”

Here’s the final ten in the MTV new talent poll…

1. Conor Maynard
2. King Charles
3. Lana Del Rey
4. Clement Marfo & The Frontline
5. Angel
6. Delilah
7. Charli XCX
8. Michael Kiwanuka
9. Lianne La Havas
10. Context

Several silent months after undergoing microsurgery to repair a haemorrhaged vocal cord, it’s been confirmed that Adele will make her ‘comeback’ of sorts by singing at the impending Grammy Awards ceremony. A tweet posted by the twice Grammy-winning singer, who is nominated in six categories at the 2012 awards, reads: “It’s been so long I started to forget I was a singer! I can’t wait, speak soon”.

Ms Adkins may have to dodge protestors when arriving at the big awards bash, with Rev Jesse Jackson threatening to lead protests outside this year’s Grammys over that previously reported decision by award organisers the Recording Academy to cut the number of categories.

As previously reported, some have accused the Grammys of penalising certain minority genres and ethnic groups by cutting and merging some categories, and some affected acts have been quietly, and in some cases not so quietly, fuming all year. Jackson has requested a meeting with Academy boss Neil Portnow, who has said he’ll gladly meet with the civil rights activist to explain why he believes the Grammy’s voting process to be fair.

Assuming nominees and other industry types can get past any protests on 12 Feb, they will also get to enjoy performances from the Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Coldplay and Paul McCartney between all that tedious award presenting (there may be less awards to be dished out over Grammy weekend this year, but there’s still flippin loads).

So, the noms are out for the NME Awards 2012, where Kasabian, The Vaccines, Florence Welch and The Horrors are also due to play, while the host has been confirmed as posh boy stand up Jack Whitehall who, noting an incident at the 2006 NME awards show involving that year’s host Russell Brand, told reporters yesterday: “It’s brilliant to be able to host the NME awards, I’m one step closer to having Bob Geldof call me a cunt!”

Whether Geldof plans to be present at the Brixton Academy on 29 Feb isn’t clear, but many of the following nominees presumably will be, so maybe one of them could take on the “call Whitehall a cunt” duties. And talking of the noms, and not that we would wish to influence the voting (which is now open at this URL), but would it not be wonderful if Beady Eye were declared Worst Band on the same night Noel Gallagher was declared a Godlike Genius? Or is that just me? Anyway, those noms…

Best British Band: Arctic Monkeys, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Horrors, Kasabian, Muse

Best International Band: Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, Justice, Odd Future (OFWGKTA), The Strokes

Best Solo Artist: Adele, Florence Welch, Frank Turner, Laura Marling, Miles Kane, Noel Gallagher

Best New Band: Foster The People, Lana Del Rey, Tribes, The Vaccines, Wu Lyf

Best Live Band: Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Muse, Pulp, Two Door Cinema Club

Best Album: Artic Monkeys – Suck It and See, The Horrors – Skying, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, PJ Harvey – Let England Shake, The Vaccines – What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

Best Track: Arctic Monkeys – The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala, Bombay Bicycle – Club Shuffle, Florence + The Machine – Shake It Out, Hurts – Sunday, Lana Del Rey – Video Games

Dancefloor Anthem: Azealia Banks – 212, Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks, Justice – Civilization, Katy B – Broken Record, Metronomy – The Bay

Best Video: Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See, Beyonce – Countdown, Hurts – Sunday, Lana Del Rey – Video Games, Tyler, The Creator – Yonkers

Best TV Show: Dr Who, Fresh Meat, Misfits, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, This is England 88

Best Festival: Bestival, Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, T In The Park, V

Best Film: Black Swan, Drive, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part Two, Inbetweeners, Submarine

Best Music Film: Back And Forth – Foo Fighters, Living In The Material World – George Harrison, Talihina Sky – Kings Of Leon, There Are No Innocent Bystanders – Libertines, Upside Down – The Creation Records Story

Greatest Music Moment: Brian May joins My Chemical Romance on stage at Reading Festival, Kasabian see in 2012 with their epic O2 show, Noel Gallagher launches solo career with classic press conference, Pulp steal the show at Glastonbury with secret set, The Stone Roses reunite

Best Re-issue: Manic Street Preachers – National Treasures, Nirvana – Never Mind, Primal Screen – Screamadelica, Rolling Stones – Some Girls, The Smiths – Complete Re-Issues

Best Book: Jarvis Cocker – Mother, Brother, Lover, Noel Fielding – The Scribblings Of A Madcap Shambleton, Jared Leto – Notes From The Outernet, Shaun Rider – Twisting My Melon, Malcolm X – A Life Of Reinvention

Hero Of The Year: Alex Turner, Dave Grohl, Matt Bellamy, Noel Fielding, Noel Gallagher

Villain Of The Year: Justin Bieber, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Liam Gallagher, Lady Gaga

Worst Album: Justin Bieber – Under The Mistletoe, Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto, Lady Gaga – Born This Way, One Direction – Up All Night, Viva Brother – Famous First Words

Worst Band: Beady Eye, Coldplay, Muse, One Direction, Viva Brother

Best Album Artwork: Arctic Monkeys – Suck It And See, Bjork – Biophilia, Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind of Fix, Friendly Fires – Pala, Jay Z and Kanye West – Watch The Throne

Best Band Blog or Twitter: @Example, Frank-turner.com/blog, @kaynewest, @Ladygaga, @Theohurts

Best Small Festival: Field Day, Hop Farm, Latitude, Kendall Calling, Rockness

Most Dedicated Fans: Arctic Monkeys, Hurts, Muse, My Chemical Romance, 30 Seconds To Mars

Hottest Male: Matt Bellamy (Muse), Andy Biersack (Black Veil Brides), Dom Howard (Muse), Jared Leto (30 Seconds To Mars), Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance)

Hottest Female: Marina Diamandis (Marina And The Diamonds), Amy Lee (Evanescence), Katy Perry,
Florence Welch, Hayley Williams (Paramore)

The shortlist for Xfm’s annual New Music Award, which is presented to what is deemed the best debut album of the previous year, has been announced. The shortlist is voted for by the station’s listeners, while the overall winner is selected by a panel, which this year includes Xfm presenters John Kennedy and Mary Anne Hobbs, producer John Leckie, Muse drummer Dom Howard, Peter Hook, and one Xfm listener.

Says John Kennedy: “A classic debut album is both the culmination of a lifetime of experience and the launch pad for a future life of musical creativity. It’s great that Xfm recognises this and seeks to give it the attention it deserves. 2011 was an amazing year for debuts, to choose one for the Award will be quite a task!”

The winner will be announced on 8 Feb at The Ritz in Manchester.

The shortlist is as follows:

Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding
James Blake – James Blake
Chapel Club – Palace
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Ben Howard – Every Kingdom
Miles Kane – Colour Of The Trap
Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm
Scroobius Pip – Distraction Pieces
Ed Sheeran – +
The Vaccines – What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

The annual French pop awards bash that is the NRJ Awards took place in Cannes alongside MIDEM as usual this weekend, with the Bieber and LMFAO among the international winners, and Adele and even little old Mika representing the Brits. Here’s the winners list…

Francophone Revelation Of The Year: Keen V
International Revelation Of The Year: Adele

Francophone Male Artist Of The Year: M Pokora
International Male Artist Of The Year: Mika

Francophone Female Artist Of The Year: Shy’m
International Female Artist Of The Year: Rihanna

Francophone Song Of The Year: M Pokora – A Nos Actes Manques
International Song Of The Year: Adele – Someone Like You

Francophone Group/Duo Of The Year: Simple Plan feat. Marie-Mai
International Group/Duo Of The Year: LMFAO

Music Video Of The Year: LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem

NRJ Award Of Honor: Justin Bieber and Shakira
NRJ Award Of Diamond: Mylene Farmer

Elsewhere in award giving in Cannes this weekend, veteran record business exec, industry conference regular, and champion rock n roll storyteller Seymour Stein was presented the Billboard Icon Award, a new prize to recognise lifetime achievements in the music industry. That the Sire Records co-founder deserves the prize is sort of a given, surely, but if you need convincing Billboard has posted a review of his career and a video of top names bigging Stein up at this URL.

Commenting on the award at the breakfast bash where it was presented, Billboard’s Editorial Director Bill Werde noted the impact one of Sire’s most famous signings, The Ramones, had on him personally when growing up. Said Werde: “The Ramones are really the band that changed my life. That was my gateway drug… That was the band that took me on my path and got me into cool music and got me into all these things. To some extent, you can blame Seymour for my being here at all. And Seymour, I personally thank you very much for that”.

One of the more surprising things about yesterday’s Oscar nominations is that only two people are up for the Best Original Song award – Sergio Mendes for ‘Real In Rio’ from ‘Rio’ and Bret McKenzie, one half of ‘Flight Of The Conchords’, for his song ‘Man Or Muppet’ from the new Muppets movie.

Eligible songs from Elton John, Lady Gaga, Mary J Blige, Elvis Costello, Chris Cornell, Zooey Deschanel and Will.i.am all missed out on nominations because of the way this Oscar shortlist is worked out – members of the Academy’s music branch are asked to rate all eligible songs out of ten, and only those which get an average mark of 8.25 or more get nominated. Usually that means a shortlist of four or five tracks, but this year’s it’s only two.

Of course that means favourable odds for both Sergio and Bret. Commenting on his song and nomination, McKenzie told MTV: “I woke up to the phone ringing non-stop, so then I picked up my phone and saw the news. I was very excited. I don’t sound it, but I am very excited. I was amazed there were only two nominees. It seems unusual, but it’s grea because the odds are 50-50. The only thing that would be better, I guess, would be if there was only one nomination”.

On the nominated song, he continued: “I really wanted [this song] to be hilarious and beautiful, and I feel like we got that combination. It’s sincere but ridiculous. The idea of children singing the song at school cracks me up. The night we recorded it, we had a few drinks and ['The Muppets' co-writer and star] Jason Segel was predicting we’d get together at the Oscars, but he was joking. [Though maybe] that guy can see the future”.

In the Oscar’s Original Score category this year there are only four contenders, though that’s because John Williams has been nominated twice (it’s the seventh time that has happened). Following last year’s win for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s electronic score for ‘The Social Network’, all the nominated scores this time are more traditional orchestral affairs, Reznor and Ross’s most recent soundtrack, for ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’, not appearing on the noms.

Williams is shortlisted for ‘The Adventures Of Tintin’ and ‘War Horse’, while also in the running are Ludovic Bource for ‘The Artist’, Alberto Iglesias for ‘Tinker Tailor Solider Spy’, and Howard Shore for ‘Hugo’.

The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on 26 Feb.

Noel Gallagher is a Godlike genius. Official. I mean, the NME says so, so it must be true. Yes, the former Oasis man will be presented the Godlike Genius Award at the NME Awards this year, following the launch of his post-Oasis project Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds last year.

Responding succinctly to the news he’d be presented with the NME honour on 29 Feb, Gallagher told reporters: “I would like to thank NME for bestowing upon me such a great accolade. I have dreamt of this moment since I was 43 years old. I accept that I am now a genius, just like God”.

NME Editor Krissi Murison had more to say, waxing lyrical thus: “For the best part of two decades, the voice of one man has dominated the pages of NME more than any other. That man is Noel Gallagher. Opinionated, intelligent, passionate and always hilarious – Noel walks and talks it better than any other musician out there, and it’s just one of the reasons why the British public loves him so dearly”.

She continues: “The other reason, of course, is the anthems. No individual has written as many sing-out-loud classics as Noel. His songwriting has defined a generation, and for that reason I’m incredibly happy to declare Noel NME’s Godlike Genius. That he keeps pushing boundaries as a solo artist proves that there’s a long way to go in the story of one of the most talented musicians Britain has ever produced”.

Previous winners of the NME Genius prize include The Clash, Paul Weller, The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, New Order and Joy Division, and Dave Grohl. Morrissey has never been in the frame for the prize, though word has it he is up for Most Hilarious Libel Litigation at this year’s NME bash.

Virgin Group’s Richard Branson will be honoured at a pre-Grammy Awards bash next month, receiving the Recording Academy’s President Merit Award at the Pre-Grammy Gala dinner hosted by the Academy and veteran US record industry exec Clive Davis.

Organisers of the Gala say Branson has been chosen for the honour, which has previously gone to the likes of Herb Alpert, Ahmet Ertegum and Berry Gordy, “in recognition of his significant contributions to the music industry and the impact his efforts have had on music and the business of music”.

Of course Branson has been out of the music business for sometime now, having sold Virgin Records to EMI in 1992, second label venture V2 to Universal in 2007, and the Virgin Megastore to its management the same year (a clever move assuring it was Zavvi and not a Virgin brand that went under two years later).

Nevertheless, the Virgin name is still often associated with music, partly because EMI continues to use the Virgin name for one of its labels, and the Branson-controlled Virgin Group does still have interests in music radio in some parts of the world.

And some wonder if, in order to win regulator approval for its acquisition of the EMI record company, Universal might not propose selling off the old Virgin Records labels, and who knows, perhaps Branson would fancy another adventure in the record business.