It’s your first ever Brit Awards. You’re on your 6th glass of free booze (free!) and you’ve just bumped into your mate when suddenly a camera swooshes down and Ant and Dec (the Ant and Dec) appear in front of you. You have two choices: you either move out the way and allow Britain’s premier light-entertainers to get on with their jobs, or you stay in shot and mug to camera. We know what we’d do.
For anyone wondering who the teenage girl with florescent pink hair was in the background of Wednesday night’s Brits, that was GIRLI. Livening – along with partner in crime RAT BOY – what was an otherwise tame affair, we gave the London-based singer a ring to see what she was thinking, how she was feeling and what on earth she was doing at the Brit Awards in the first place.
hi @RATBOY @girlimusic #BRITs2016 pic.twitter.com/hc2qdeiBfK
— tilli xx (@1975tilli) February 24, 2016
Hello GIRLI. When did you find out you were going to the Brits?
Oh, about two days before! I was, as always, just trying to sneak my way into anything. I asked my manager if he could get me into one of the after parties and he was like, ‘Do you want to go to the actual thing?’. I was like ‘Fuck yeah!”.
Was it weird? It looks weird.
It was the most surreal experience of my life because the thing is, I’m there, no one knows who I am, I’m not famous, I still feel like I should be watching it on TV. You know, you’re sitting on a table and ‘Oh, look, Justin Beiber’s just there and, oh, there’s Adele,’ and Carl Barat is talking to you and it’s just like the weirdest thing ever. It’s almost like you expect there to be another VIP bit, but everyone is just mixing, running around, talking to everyone. It’s just crazy.
Who was on your table?
Krept and Konan were on my table. Carl Barat, which was a bit mental. But then also, like, I was swapping around between quite a few tables. I couldn’t really sit still.
When did you decide, I‘m gonna try and get on the telly? Who made the decision? Was you?
It wasn’t even a decision, it just happened. I was on about my 6th glass of free booze, feeling pretttty lit, and Jordan (RAT BOY) came over and was, like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ and we were both like ‘This is so weird, what the hell, everyone’s so fancy and strange’ and then this camera from, like, up swoops in and they say ‘Get out the way guys’ so we just looked at each other and were like ‘Nah, mate, we have to do this’. And no one stopped us! It was so jokes. My mum was like “I saw you on TV!’.
Did she tell you off?
I got told off by no one! Florence Welsh gave me the evils a couple of times but my mum was, like, ‘Legend!’. You know what though, I was surprised that more people didn’t do it. How can you just sit still? The camera is there. Entertain the people!
Who was the most random famous person that you spoke to?
I had a brush with Lorde. That was pretty cool. It was at one of the afterparties and I was so drunk and her Bowie tribute was insane so I grabbed her arm – quite aggressively – and was, like, ‘Oh, my god, your David Bowie thing was insane’ and she was, like, ‘Ah, thanks! I like your outfit!’. That was crazy. Erm… James Bay. There were quite a few moments when I wanted to knock his hat off and reveal what lies beneath. I’m convinced he’s secretly hoarding things underneath that hat. Like, maybe there’s an animal living there.
And he didn‘t remove it all night?
He didn’t. That was the most frustrating thing when I woke up this morning. Okay, I was on TV but I didn’t knock James Bay’s hat off.
Apart from you, who was the least well behaved person at the Brit Awards?
I have to say there was a whole table – and labels or whatever pay insane amounts to get a table – for Roc Nation. So like Jay-Z, Rihanna, Beyonce, that kind of vibe. They’d got a table next to my label’s table and I was, like, ‘Oh, my god, I’m so excited, who’s going to sit there’ and no one did the whole night! So that was quite naughty, wasting about 10 grand on a table.
Do you remember who won anything?
I do. I’ll be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the whole nominations. I think they’re based on commercial success rather than innovative people or musicians. Like, Adele is incredible but did she deserve to win all the awards? I dunno. And the fact that there were no Grime artists nominated, even though Stormzy’s in the charts and Skepta, it’s kind of mad. It was a bit dry, I think, without wanting to slag anyone off.
Well thank you for livening it up anyway.
Thank you for appreciating! Next year I’m going to up my game.
By knocking off James Bay‘s hat?
By shooting it off with a bazooka.
Credits
Photography Olivia Rose