The Record of the Year was an award voted by the United Kingdom public. For many years it was given in conjunction with television programmes of the same name. The first show ran in the early evening on a December Saturday just before Christmas, with the ten finalists represented as either live performances or filmed inserts or dance routines; then the phone lines were declared opened and the second show, an hour or so later, at prime time and also live, went around the TV regions revealing the votes and culminating in the announcement of the winner. It became one of the highest rated music TV ceremonies in the UK, boosting sales of CDs and then downloads in the crucial fortnight before Christmas every year. For that reason it was much respected by the industry, labels, publishers and retailers. It was the only music award in the UK to be chosen by the public. The award began in 1998 and was televised on ITV for eight years before being dropped in 2006 after disagreements over the phone voting element. Since then it had been an online poll, administered through the Record of the Year website. In 2013, the online poll was axed, signaling the end of the award.
Contents
Winners
The most frequent winner was Irish boy band Westlife, with four awards.
"Rockstar" is the first winner which did not make # 1 on the UK singles chart, and also the first by a non-UK or Irish artist.
1998
The ten finalists were:
1999
The ten finalists were:
2000
The ten finalists were:
2001
The ten finalists were:
2002
The ten finalists were:
2003
The ten finalists were:
2004
After an initial selection of thirty songs, ten were selected for the final show, broadcast by ITV on Saturday 4 December 2004.
The ten finalists were:
2005
The final was broadcast on ITV on Saturday 10 December 2005
The ten finalists were:
2006
The Record of the Year 2006 took place online instead of ITV.
The result was:
2007
The result was announced on Sunday 16 December 2007 with over a million people casting their votes online.
The result was:
2008
The result was announced on Sunday 14 December 2008
The result was:
2009
The result of the 2009 Record of the Year vote was announced on Sunday 6 December 2009.
2010
The result of the 2010 Record of the Year.
2011
The Result was announced on Saturday 10 December
The result of the 2011 Record of the Year.
Criticism and praise
Many have criticised the 'Record of the Year' Award, as they feel the nominations are unfairly dominated by pop acts and thus the winner is usually not the "true" record of the year. One suggested reason for this is that it is done to attract young girls, who the organisers are sure will watch the televised final and vote for the records. Others have argued that it is an attempt to boost the sales of pop artists' albums, which traditionally have limited success relative to their singles, in the crucial pre-Christmas period. Of the examples cited as evidence for this, the most famous include the exclusion of rap artist Eminem's "My Name Is..." in 1999 as he was unavailable to perform live on the Record of the Year final and the omission from nominations of rock act The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" in 2003, despite being one of the highest selling singles of the year.
Memorable moments from the TV show includes among other incidents, Wyclef Jean forgetting the words to his hit Perfect Gentlemen whilst performing on stage.
In spite of this, many winners of the award, as well as the organisers, argue its significance and integrity on the basis that it represents the views of the public, rather than critics. It inspired Simon Cowell to get into television and he attributes the show for his entry into the media. Some may argue this is not entirely a good thing. However it always gets massive ratings. Indeed Westlife have often said that their first win for the single "Flying Without Wings" was the most exciting moment in their career. Unsurprisingly, critics eventually began to say that it was just an award to prove Westlife were still around, hence why Heat Magazine dubbed it "Westlife Record Of The Year" in 2004. However, a counter-argument is that this, and similar awards based on phone polls, are a true representation of public opinion, a possibly better indication than sales, which calls Radio 1's countdown of the 20 best selling singles of the last calendar year a more accurate indication of the record of the year. Still, the chosen tracks on the televised Record of the Year contest reflect the views of the television programme viewers only, and not necessarily the music-buying public at large, who might not phone in multiple times to vote for their favourite song. In contrast, the Radio 1 end-of-year chart includes all music sales in all formats.
This was the basis of the disagreement between ITV, who wanted the revenue from phone calls, and award creator Jonathan King, who believed that sales no longer reflected true popularity, with millions loving a track but failing to buy it. As a result ITV stopped broadcasting the event in 2006 and it went online.
Sponsorship
Below is a list of companies that have sponsored the award since it began
1998–2001: Britannia Music
2002–2005: T-Mobile
Theme music
From 1998 to 2004, the theme music was the club track Disco Cop by Blue Adonis.
In 2005 ITV used a specially recorded track.