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Abba, Mariah Carey and Lewis Capaldi among first artists to receive BRIT Billion award
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 4 May 2023
UK record industry trade group BPI has announced the first recipients of its new BRIT Billion award, handed out to artists who have achieved more than a billion UK streams. Among them are Abba, Coldplay, Mariah Carey, Ellie Goulding, AJ Tracey and Lewis Capaldi.
Announced last year and joining the existing platinum, silver and gold BRIT Certified awards, the BRIT Billion trophy is the first such award to recognise an artists’ success across multiple projects. Eligible streams are totted up by the Official Charts Company, and are counted where a musician is either the principal performer or a guest artist.
Now, you might think that getting a massive amount of streams is reward enough and that a trophy is unnecessary. But people like trophies, don’t they? Everyone fancies a gold disc on their wall.
Look, the BPI’s interim CEO Sophie Jones agrees. She says: “For a recording artist, there can be few greater sources of pride than having a platinum or gold disc on their wall, but in an era when success in measured in the hundreds of millions and indeed billions of streams, it was clear that we needed a new and additional way to recognise and celebrate outstanding achievement in recorded music, and I feel certain that having a BRIT Billion Award will become equally prized”.
The initial winners of the new award are Abba, Coldplay, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, AJ Tracey, Headie One, Anne-Marie, Ellie Goulding, George Ezra, Lewis Capaldi, Raye, Rita Ora and Sam Smith.
Commenting on this, Capaldi says: “Am so buzzing to be one of the first artists ever to be given a BRIT Billion award! Never in a million years did I think any of this stuff would happen but now it is I will gladly accept each and every award, you have my address”.
Carey adds: “I’m really honoured to be one of the recipients of the BRIT Billion Award. I’m so grateful to my fans for their endless and enduring support. I love you UK lambily and cannot wait to come back to your side of the pond and create more magical moments together”.
If you weren’t lucky enough to get a BRIT Billion award yourself this morning, you can take a look at one here.
