First time winners include Mark Ronson for British Male Solo Artist, who also performed “Valerie” with Amy Winehouse; Adele (PRS) for Critics Choice; and Mika for British Breakthrough Act. Previous Brit Award winner Kanye West walked away with his second International Male Solo Artist honor and the Foo Fighters won awards for International Album and International Group.

Established in 1977, the Brit Awards is a charity event that donates all proceeds to the British Record Industry Trust, better known as the Brit Trust, an organization that encourages the exploration and pursuit of the educational, cultural and therapeutic benefits of music.

BMI’s Charlie Feldman, Vice President of Writer/Publisher Relations, attended the NRJ Awards, and was backstage to congratulate BMI’s NRJ winners Rihanna (International Song – “Don’t Stop the Music”) and Mika (International Revelation).

BMI's Charlie Feldman and Rihanna

BMI's Charlie Feldman and Mika

Photos: (c) 2008 Daniel Glass

Leona Lewis, 2006 X Factor winner, scored nods for British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough, which she’ll be vying for with Mika, who is up for British Single and British Male Solo Artist among others. Producer/DJ/artist, Mark Ronson received three nominations, including British Album, and British Single for “Valerie” featuring Amy Winehouse.

The Brit Awards also acknowledged a few stateside BMI songwriters in the international categories, including Kanye West (International Male Solo Artist) and Rihanna (International Female Artist). U.S. singer/songwriters up for two nods include the Eagles, the Foo Fighters and Kings of Leon vying for awards in the International Group and International Album categories.

Additional BMI 2008 Brit Award nominees include KT Tunstall, Editors, Klaxon, Newton Faulkner, Sugababes, James Blunt, and Mutya Buena.

Established in 1977, the Brit Awards is a charity event that donates all proceeds to the British Record Industry Trust, better known as the Brit Trust, an organization that encourages the exploration and pursuit of the educational, cultural and therapeutic benefits of music.

BMI 2008 Brit Award nominees:

Leona Lewis
British Female Solo Artist
British Breakthrough
British Single
British Album

Mika
British Male solo Artist
British Breakthrough
British Single
British Album

KT Tunstall
British Female Solo Artist

Editors
British Group

Klaxons
British Breakthrough
British Live Act

Mark Ronson
British male solo artist
British single (featuring Amy Winehouse)
British Album

Newton Faulkner
British Male Solo Artist

Sugababes
British Single

James Blunt
British single

Mutya Buena
British single

Kanye West
International Male Solo Artist

Rihanna
International Female Solo Artist

Eagles
International Group
International Album

Foo Fighters
International Group
International Album

Kings of Leon
International Group
International Album

When Amy Winehouse’s (pictured, top) Back to Black debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in March, it marked the highest bow by a British female solo artist ever. A few weeks later, Joss Stone’s Introducing Joss Stone smashed her record by debuting at No. 2. James Blunt, Corrine Bailey Rae, KT Tunstall and Snow Patrol are striking gold, if not platinum, in the U.S.

“The current British invasion is due to a number of factors,” posits Evan Lamberg, EMI Music Publishing EVP of Creative for North America. “Top 40 radio is playing less and less hip-hop and rap. This is leaving more opportunity for great non-urban songwriters. VH-1 has done a tremendous job being early champions of these British acts. [Also], these acts are coming over to the U.S. again and again. Nothing replaces the good old-fashioned way of getting your hands in the dirt and taking your music to the people.”

Universal Republic president Monte Lipman, whose label handles Winehouse, Mika and Katie Melua in the U.S., calls these acts “a breath of fresh air. They don’t have a formula.”

For many of these artists, the first point of exposure for U.S. fans has been the Internet. “The industry has democratized where artists are empowered at a grassroots level like myspace,” says David Sinclair, a London-based journalist who writes for The Times.

The latest wave started in 2004 when Snow Patrol quietly crept onto U.S. shores with Final Straw. The Scottish-Irish quintet, with its often intense, always melodic, alternative rock, toured frequently in the U.S., slowly building an audience. By the time Eyes Open came out in the U.S. in May 2006, Americans were ready to hear more. That album’s “Chasing Cars” became the go-to song for hip TV shows, airing on outlets like Grey’s Anatomy, and leading the track to take up residency in the upper reaches of Billboard’s Adult Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts. According to Universal Music International, the album has sold close to four million copies worldwide.

Scotland is responsible for much more than one-half of Snow Patrol and has also given us KT Tunstall. The Scottish lass began promoting herself in the U.S. long before her Relentless/Virgin debut came out in February 2006. Among her memorable gigs was a stirring acoustic set at BMI/Billboard’s SXSW brunch in March 2005.

Her big break in the U.K. came when she performed “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree” on the influential British TV program Later with Jools Holland with less than 24 hours’ notice after another act cancelled. Eye to the Telescope, which had come out to little fanfare, was re-released and eventually shot up to No. 3 on the British album charts.

In the U.S., “Black Horse” has spent more than a year on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Chart while the second single, “Suddenly I See,” has been locked in the upper reaches of the chart for more than four months. Eye to the Telescope has been on the Billboard 200 for more than 65 weeks.

The latest Scottish imports impacting in the U.S. are The Fratellis. The first major U.S. exposure for the Scottish trio, all of whom have adopted bassist Barry Fratelli’s last name, came from iTune’s use of the utterly infectious “Flathead” in television ads. The trio’s debut, Costello Music (Cherry Tree/Interscope), revels in retro music that sounds instantly recognizable while new at the same time. The group can also be heard on the soundtrack to the movie Hot Fuzz.

While bands like Snow Patrol and the Fratellis are having their day, solo artists like former British Army captain James Blunt are leading the charge.

While many of the U.K.-based acts come to the U.S. via the American label’s U.K. affiliate, Blunt’s entry point was through Linda Perry’s Custard imprint. Perry signed the singer/songwriter after he’d linked with EMI Music Publishing in London. By the time Back to Bedlam came out in the U.S on Custard/Atlantic, the album had already hit No. 1 in the U.K. The first U.S. single, “You’re Beautiful,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first song by a British performer to top that chart in 10 years.

Blunt rode the success of Bedlam and “Beautiful” to five Grammy nominations.

Like Blunt, fellow Brit Corinne Bailey Rae had already hit No. 1 in her native U.K. when she came over here with her sweetly nuanced, mellow tunes. Her self-titled chart topper made her only the fourth female singer in the history of the British charts to debut at No. 1 with her first album. In the U.S., her rise has been no less spectacular, bolstered by major TV exposure via outlets like “Oprah Winfrey.” Rae snared three Grammy nominations, including the coveted best new artist. Her debut has surpassed the platinum mark here, pushed by first single “Put Your Records On.”

While Rae has gotten her share of press, seldom has an artist caused quite the media stir as Amy Winehouse. She’s a critical darling as famous for her beehive and tattoos as her shimmery, soulful, girl-group musical style.

The Enfield, England native’s Back to Black has already sold more than 1.2 million in the U.K. and helped Winehouse capture the Brit Award for best British female artist in February.

“She’s one part soul diva, one part jazz singer and one part rock star,” says Lamberg. “A deadly combo.”

“Fortunately for us, Amy loves to tour,” says Lipman, who notes she’ll play U.S. dates in June and this fall.

Winehouse’s U.S. labelmate Katie Melua was born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, but ultimately settled in Surrey, England. At 15, Melua won a televised talent competition and was on her way. The classic pop singer released Call off the Search in 2003 and the album went on to sell 1.2 million copies in the U.K. alone. Her second album, Piece by Piece, moved 1.8 million copies in the U.K., with worldwide sales of more than 3 million.

Like Melua, Mika is another British immigrant. His music was created out of the unending loneliness that Mika says often engulfed him after his family moved from Beirut to Paris and, ultimately, to London. Vocally, he’s a cross between Freddie Mercury (whom he references on his first single, “Grace Kelly”) and Robbie Williams. The colorful ’70s, psychedelic pop images that are the album art for Life in Cartoon Motion and his videos are as much a part of his image as his delectable, pop music.

“With Mika, the key word is different,” says Lipman. “Even though people respect the success you’re having, people [at pop radio] look at us kind of sideways and say ‘You expect me to play that?’ and we say your listeners have spoken.” Indeed, the album racked up several consecutive weeks as the No. 1 pop album on iTunes.

Like Mika, Lily Allen’s personality is as big as her music. Her music is classic pop, but she ties in ska, rap and her other influences to create a thoroughly modern and invigorating sound. Not surprisingly, Alright, Still has gone double platinum in her native England and platinum in Europe. It debuted at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 and continues to sell well.

Part of the strength of the current British invasion is its diversity. British rapper Lady Sovereign caused waves of excitement when she became the first non-American female signed to Jay-Z’s Def Jam label.

The press excitement has outweighed sales so far, but Sinclair says that’s not surprising given how outside the mainstream her music is. “She’s a grime queen, it’s deep hardcore. It’s like East London rap, drum and bass.” But that edge is what has made the Wembley, England native such a phenomenon at 21. “She’s very alternative,” Sinclair continues. “She’s a name that people like to drop and frequently do.”

Her debut album, Public Warning, entered the Billboard Top 200 at No. 48, but her popularity is sure to rise when she opens for Gwen Stefani this summer.

Similar to Lady Sovereign, Don Corleon relies on street rhythms to propel his sound. The leading Jamaican dancehall artist/producer has helped advance the dancehall movement in the U.S. through his work with such acts as Sean Paul, Rihanna, Beenie Man, Capleton, Bounty Hunter and Wayne Wonder. Kartel, noting a resemblance between the two, allegedly gave Donovan Bennett the Don Corleon moniker, as a takeoff on Marlon Brando’s “Godfather” character, Don Corleone.

As these artists continue to make inroads in America, Sinclair expects today’s success to continue to swell: “Everyone in Britain is trying to make a record,” he says, with only a little overstatement. “It’s a river that’s burst its banks and it’s flowing in all directions.”

Fun, smart, musically adventurous and thematically provocative, the 13 songs on Life, all of them written and produced by Mika, combine euphoric rushes of melody with darker, unexpected elements. They range from bright daytime melodramas to night-time tales of love, loss, abandonment, hope and happiness. Each is a splendid blend of fresh imagination and deft pop craftsmanship. They are songs, Mika says, “about transitions,” about people in the process of becoming whoever they want to be. Sort of like Mika himself.

“Transitions are important, because that’s when everything gets destabilized, and that makes you question and re-evaluate everything,” he explains. “For songwriting, that’s an endless source of inspiration, because it makes you look at things. You can’t take anything for granted.”

A self-taught piano virtuoso, gymnastic vocalist and born entertainer, Mika has music in his bones. His four-octave voice, which he knows when to restrain and when to unleash, needs to be heard to be believed, and he uses it to powerful effect on Life. Whether praising the delights of the larger-framed woman on the funk-rocking “Big Girl (You Are Beautiful),” describing the journey of a married man who discovers that he’s attracted to men on the burlesque “Billy Brown,” or simply celebrating the joys of being alive on “Love Today,” he is unafraid to revel in the pleasure he takes in making music. “I wrote ‘Love Today’ when I was happy, really happy,” he recalls. “When you’re on a buzz, you assume that everyone in the world feels the way you do. So I put it in a song.” Motorola has licensed “Love Today” for online and mobile-phone spots in its RED campaign

The moods on Life in Cartoon Motion swing wildly - as do the rush of musical surprises that continually tumble forward. That sense of delirious unpredictability accounts, in part, for the album’s title. “Inevitably when you put certain subjects into a pop song, a cartoon-like quality arises,” Mika says. “It’s like how Homer Simpson can talk about anything from politics to Michael Jackson’s weirdness to homosexuality and get away with it because it’s a cartoon. That’s where the title comes from.”

Mika’s background, however, wasn’t always so playful. He was born in Beirut in the mid 80s, and his family moved to Paris at the height of Lebanon’s brutal civil war. His father was subsequently taken hostage and held at the American embassy in Kuwait, and the family eventually settled in London. Mika found himself lost in the chasm of these wrenching and frightening events.

“It was the combination of moving as well as a horrible time I had at school in the first few years of living in London that led me to forget how to read and write, and stop talking for a little while,” he says. “I was pulled out of school for over six months; in order to sort myself out. This is when music really became important. It got me back on my feet.”

By the time he was 9, Mika knew that songwriting was what he wanted to do. “After I started singing, I started to get jobs everywhere,” he says. “I did everything from recordings with the Royal Opera House to a chewing gum jingle. One reason I got so much work was that I was insanely cheap. My mother and I had no idea what I was supposed to get paid.  Looking back on it, 45 quid for an Orbit chewing gum jingle could have been a little too cheap!”

When he was 11, Mika catapulted onto the stage of a Richard Strauss opera, and the glamour of that environment instantly seduced him. “It was a magical world that you could live in,” he says. “A parallel universe for people that is illusory and enchanting.”

When it came time for college, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music. An obsessive songwriter, he would crash parties, hijack the piano and start performing his tunes. One such occasion led to a development deal, which, unfortunately, only ended up crushing his spirit. “The executives would try and twist me into a direction that went totally against my nature,” he recalls. “Basically, they wanted me to follow whatever was popular.”

To fend off depression, Mika wrote “Grace Kelly,” a hilariously bold operatic spoof set to a Technicolor pop backdrop. “It was a f-off song to the people I was working with,” he explains. “That’s where the line ‘Shall I bend over/Shall I look older,/Just to be put on your shelf’ comes from. I was so angry. That company had every resource except a soul.” The infectious pomp and catchy chorus of “Grace Kelly” became a benchmark for the kind of music he wanted to make. “You can’t be afraid to stand out,” he says. “If no one was going to take a punt on it, then so be it. I would do it myself.” He found himself in Miami, recording demos with anyone who was interested, in any studio he could get for free. Eventually the right deal came along, and the result is this startlingly appealing album.

These songs all reflect Mika’s distinctive touch - they are simultaneously theatrical and intimate, accessible and gleefully subversive. “‘Why not?’ is one of my mottoes,” Mika says, laughing. “I always knew that the first album I ever made would have to be a completely ‘no apologies’ album. There’s a kind of youth to that as well. This is the kind of record that I knew I would only be able to make once in my life. It’s my coming-out-of school, leaving-university album - that whole transition period from childhood to adulthood. That energy keeps it alive.”

And it is just the beginning of what Mika is capable of delivering musically. “Playing live is where it all comes together for me,” he says. “I often get stressed when recording - it’s so full of decision making. You’re constantly deciding what should stay on the song forever. I love undoing all that in my live sets, and going places where I wouldn’t necessarily go on the record.”

http://www.mikasounds.com/us/