As the countdown began to the biggest event in the British music calendar - The Brits - Radio 1's Sara Cox spoke to some of the stars (Tuesday).

Sara managed to catch up with OutKast's Andre 3000 on his way to the bash.

They were nominated for Best International Album against Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and The White Stripes.

Sara thought he might have been in a stretch limo with "naked girls and champagne", but it was a Range Rover truck as Andre admitted "nah, we don't like that type of stuff."

He told Sara what OutKast had planned for their performance:

"Performing 'Hey Ya' with a little bit of a surprise at the end so stay tuned…"

He also said it was his first time at the Brit Awards, so was he hoping to be shown how to party?:

"Well actually I'm going to show them how we do it!"

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Sara Cox caught up with Alicia Keys while she was having her hair done backstage.

The singer admitted she was surprised at being nominated for Best International Female, but was most looking forward to being on stage to do a collaboration with Missy Elliott and Gwen Stefani:

"The thing I'm most excited about is performing - it's going to be crazy! It's really going to be funky - you bring three women with three separate styles like that together on one stage, to do one song that we all love - it's really been a ball. I mean we've had such a good time putting it together, tonight is going to be like a party for us. We're going to kill it, we're going to have a good time!"

Missy Elliott couldn't wait either, as she told Sara:

"It's fun, it's fun. I think we kinda just fit into each other's world - even though we're different, we came together. It's funny 'cos Gwen says she's not really a dancer, I'm not really a singer and Alicia's not a rapper, but we all just came into that one world, it should be fun - we're gonna have a lot of fun out there."

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Jamie's plan to kick off with 50

Jamie Cullum told Sara Cox backstage that he had some celebrity backstage antics planned.

He admitted he was a bit star struck - he had already said "hi" to Andre 3000 from OutKast, but he had eyes on bigger things:

Jamie: "This is very Rock n Roll, I'm going to make sure I destroy something."

Sara: "What, in your dressing room?"

Jamie: "No no! I'm gonna maybe just destroy something in 50 Cent's dressing room. I'm going to show him my air pellet wound as well, and see what he says."

Sara: "Go on do it, I dare you!"

Jamie: "Alright, no problem. It's done."

Jamie was nominated for British Breakthrough Artist as voted for by Radio 1 listeners.

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