It has been quite a month for Harry Styles. Barely a week after his surprise win at the Grammys where he took home two trophies, including the coveted Album of the Year award for his third solo record Harry’s House, the former One Direction singer emerged as the big winner at the 2023 Brit Awards that were held at The O2 Arena in London on February 11.

Styles was crowned the British Artist of the Year and also earned the British Album of the Year (Harry’s House), Song of the Year (‘As It Was’), and Best Pop/R&B Act honours. The singer acknowledged his privilege in his acceptance speech, correcting course from his “people like me” Grammys comment that had sparked online backlash.

Also victorious at the ceremony were British indie rock band Wet Leg (who won the British Group and Best New Artist awards) and American megastar Beyoncé (who was deemed the International Artist of the Year and won the Best International Song award for her smash hit ‘Break My Soul’ as well).

The event, did, however, come with a couple of controversies (and we don’t mean the memefest generated by Sam Smith’s “charred chicken” look). Before it even began, the show had received criticism for some of its nominations. The Artist of the Year award – introduced last year after scrapping the separate male and female categories – featured only male nominees and not a single female performer. The Pop/R&B Act category, meanwhile, lacked R&B representation.

The ceremony itself faced a technical hitch at one point, when a malfunction delayed Sam Smith’s performance and left viewers at home scratching their heads when an archive rendition of Adele’s ‘I Drink Wine’ from the previous year was aired while the set issues were fixed.