Anyway, here is a selection of performances from the evening – for a full list of winners, click here:

Nicki Minaj & Lil Wayne ‘High School’

Prince – medley

Bruno Mars ‘Treasure’

Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull ‘Live It Up’

will.i.am & Justin Bieber ‘#thatPOWER’

Justin Bieber ‘Take You’

Pitbull & Christina Aguilera ‘Feel This Moment’

Selena Gomez ‘Come & Get It’

Taylor Swift ’22′

Madonna wins Top Touring Artist for the MDNA tour:

‘Live It Up’ live at American Idol performance

The video for the champagne fueled song will premiere later today, but a trailer was released to give you a preview of what’s to come.

Preview of ‘Live It Up’ video

American Idol judge Mariah Carey took to the stage earlier that night to perform a medley of her greatest hits.

Carey was joined by fellow-judge Randy Jackson on bass, but the awkward editing of the pre-recorded performance takes away the attention of her vocals.

American Idol Finale ~ Mariah Carey Medley by HumanSlinky

Oh, and we met Perry back stage; check out out snap back stage!

Dressed in a loose ‘Tongue’ t-shirt, Stefani took on the 1970 hit ‘Wild Horses‘ with Mick Jagger.

Fan footage of the full song

Official 30 second official snippet

We’re a bit confused as to why the sister on the right is gurning like she’s in a Mastodon cover band…

The highlight of Hewlett Packard’s latest HP Connected Music event was a glittering performance from Ellie Goulding. The intimate gig, which took place in front of fans who won tickets via the new music platform, was broadcast live online and can still be seen on YouTube!

Check out some of the highlights below or have a look through the photo gallery.

HP Connected Music is available on HP PCs with Windows 8. The music platform gives you unlimited access to Universal Music’s catalogue, spanning over 3500 artists including Lady Gaga, Girls Aloud, Rihanna and many more.

The event will be the first HP Connected Music gig here in the UK, and the swish music platform is giving Ellie fans a chance to win tickets (details below*).

However – fear not if you miss out on tickets! The intimate evening of live performances from Ellie’s latest album ‘Halcyon’ will also be live-streamed via HP’s YouTube channel. Hooray!

*Tickets can be won by UK registered HP Connected Music users and is open to HP customers who have purchased a new HP desktop or notebook PC with Microsoft Windows 8  before 14th March.

‘Suit & Tie’ featured some slick dance moves with a – wait for it… – a tie, while Jay-Z joined him towards the middle to deliver his verse. JT also found space in his performance to respond to Kanye West’s diss by changing the line “Sh*t so sick / Got a hit and picked up a habit,” to “My hits so sick / Got rappers acting dramatic.”

Admittedly, we’re a bit over his tuxedo-clad / big band look for The 20/20 Experience, but Mirrors sounds great with a live band and will make an excellent encore for when JT hits the road.

Suit & Tie – live at SNL

Mirrors – live at SNL

In the interview, Nicole said she didn’t want to rush her second album to have it out during last year’s X Factor. Instead, she’s taking her time to finish the album and will release it later this year. Presumably when the X Factor is on.

She also mentioned she’s working with Will.i.am on the album, who is executive producing the album and that the album will be dance driven with huge anthems.

On the Pussycat Dolls, she said:

“The girls actually left the group, because they wanted to go solo and do their own individual thing”

“It dismantled one at the time, but within a week”

Interview

Boomerang Live at Jonathan Ross

Justin Timberlake ‘Mirrors’ @ 2013 BRIT Awards

Emeli Sandé ‘Clown’

Emeli Sandé ‘Next To Me’

Winners:

British breakthrough act – Ben Howard (seriously – who?)
British female solo artist – Emeli Sandé
British group – Mumford & Sons
Live act – Coldplay
British male solo artist – Ben Howard
British producer – Paul Epworth
British single – Adele, Skyfall
Special recognition award – War Child
Brits global success (for international sales in 2012) – One Direction
Critics’ choice – Tom Odell
International female solo artist – Lana Del Rey
International group – Black Keys
International male solo artist – Frank Ocean
Best album – Emeli Sandé, Our Version Of Events

Picture courtesy of Brits.co.uk.

We personally prefer Mutya Keisha Siobhan’s harmonised version of the track, but let us know which interpretation you love best.

Promoting a new EP of the same name, Pallot welcomed her audience to the Lonely Valentine’s Club, pointing out that it was business as usual from the straight talking singer-songwriter. The show featured stripped back versions of her back catalogue, including ‘Everyone’s Gone to War’, ‘Put Your Hands Up’ and ‘All Bets Are Off’, as well as new material from the ‘Lonely Valentine’ EP. She introduced ‘Once‘ as a metaphor for the lottery logo fingers, hoping she would succeed at love ‘just once’. (Thankfully she did point out that her husband was fine with the subject matter, given that it was based on previous experiences!)

One of the highlights was a haunting delivery of CeCe Peniston’s club classic ‘Finally‘, as found on the EP. Pallot told the audience she decided to release an EP while she is finishing her 5th studio album, which by her own admission could take ’6 months or 6 years’ to complete.

‘Lonely Valentine Club’ EP is out now via iTunes and Amazon.