Memorable moments in Brit Awards history

The annual celebration of the best of British music has given us its fair share of highlights over the years.

From iconic outfits, to incredible performances – the Brit Awards have always been must-see.

Ahead of the Brits heading out of London for the first time – with Manchester hosting the 2026 edition – BBC Bitesize looks back at some of the most memorable moments in the Brit Awards’ history.

Madonna’s big fall

The crowd at London’s O2 Arena gasped.

While some thought it was part of the choreography, others realised it was an unintentional tumble.

Midway through a live performance at the 2015 Brit Awards, the legendary singer Madonna stood with her back to a set of stairs. While singing, she attempted to loosen a knot around her neck that was supporting a cape she was wearing.

The reason for this became apparent very quickly, as one of her dancers pulled the cape with quite some force. Unfortunately, the knot had proved tricky to undo, and the power with which the cape was pulled sent Madonna tumbling down the stairs to the stage floor.

For many, such a blow might see the end of a performance. Not Madonna.

The then-56 year old stood up, removed the cape, carried on singing and delivered a performance in her trademark style.

Perhaps not Madonna’s favourite memory of the Brits – although she has a long association with the awards, winning best international female artist twice previously.

Jarvis Cocker’s Earth Song protest

Madonna isn’t the only US singer to have had an unplanned moment on stage.

In 1996, Brits organisers brought in Michael Jackson as the special guest star and even gave him a one-off, unique award – Artist of a Generation.

Jackson sang Earth Song at the ceremony – an incredibly theatrical performance, featuring a large cast of young children. It was a spectacular performance but not to everybody’s taste – particularly that of Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.

Cocker was uncomfortable with the imagery of the performance – in which the children on stage seemed to be playing the part of Jackson worshippers. He felt that Jackson was portraying a Messiah-like figure and had had enough.

He stormed the stage and protested as only he knew how – by wiggling his (clothed) bottom towards Jackson, the crowd and cameras. He then fled from angry dancers and Jackson’s security teams in a slightly farcical mid-stage chase, all while Jackson danced on top of a cherry picker above the audience.

Backstage, Cocker was detained by Jackson’s security detail and later arrested. He was ultimately released without any charge – thanks in part, to the legal advice of comedian Bob Mortimer, who voluntarily acted as Jarvis’ lawyer in the immediate aftermath.

30 years on, Cocker and Pulp will be hoping for a slightly calmer Brit Awards in 2026 – nominated at the Brits for the first time since the Earth Song incident, this time in the Best British Group category.

Geri’s Union Jack dress

Has there ever been a single outfit more iconic in British music than the dress worn by the Spice Girls’ Geri Halliwell-Horner at the Brits?

Ginger Spice’s famous Union Jack dress made headlines around the world in 1997. But it wasn’t the original outfit Geri was supposed to wear.

She’d been handed a classic little black dress but felt it was too boring for their first Brits as a group. So she asked her sister to make it more Brits-suitable – by sewing on a Union Jack tea towel on the front. They also added a peace sign to the back of the dress.

Geri’s look symbolised the Cool Britannia movement of the 1990s and at the 2010 Brit Awards, the whole group’s performance was voted the most memorable of the previous 30 years – in no small part down to that dress.

Geri later auctioned the dress, selling it for over £41,000 – then a record for an item of clothing worn by a popstar – with proceeds being donated to a children’s cancer charity. She wore new versions of the dress on both the 2007 and 2019 Spice Girls reunion tours.

The disastrous broadcast

Presenting live television is a skill – it’s not easy.

The stars we’re used to seeing on screen for live shows have had plenty of practice.

So spare a thought for the hosts of the 1989 Brit Awards who were rather thrown in at the deep end.

Model Sam Fox and drummer Mick Fleetwood were asked to co-host the ceremony, then broadcast live on television in front of a formidable in-venue audience of their peers in the music industry.

Neither were particularly experienced at live TV and presented an unusual image on screen given their enormous height difference. Fox is 5ft 1in tall while Fleetwood towered over her at a height of 6ft 5in.

The duo were let down by a number of technical difficulties. The autocue didn’t work properly, they were told to introduce the wrong artists via earpiece messages – famously Boy George arrived on stage when The Four Tops had been announced – and at one point, they had to be reminded by award presenters to reveal the nominations before announcing a winner.

Brits bosses decided to avoid a repeat of this and pre-recorded the ceremony from 1990 until 2007 before deciding to revert back to live. Organisers have gone down the tried and tested route for the 2026 host with Jack Whitehall returning to lead the ceremony for a record-breaking sixth time.

This article was published in February 2026