Mark Ronson pays emotional tribute to Amy Winehouse as he accepts Outstanding Contribution prize
mark ronson accepted the BRIT Awards Outstanding Contribution to Music prize with an emotional speech and tributes to Amy Winehouse, recalling the day they wrote "Back to Black" and performing a string of set pieces that referenced their partnership.
Moment onstage and the tribute performances
He received the award from Skepta and followed the presentation with a run of performances: he sang "Ooh Wee" on stage with Ghostface Killah, delivered a rendition of "Back to Black" that included a clip of the late singer and footage of Valerie alongside Amy's band The Dap-Kings, and closed with "Uptown Funk" before Dua Lipa made a surprise appearance to sing "Dance The Night" from the Barbie soundtrack and the collaboration "Electricity. " Each set piece tied directly to the night’s theme of his career and his work with Winehouse.
Mark Ronson on Amy Winehouse and the night they wrote "Back to Black"
Ronson recalled meeting Winehouse about 20 years earlier and described the day they wrote "Back to Black" as life-changing. He said he realised on the way to the ceremony that on Thursday, March 6 it would be 20 years to the day that Winehouse came up to his studio in New York City; he told the crowd that she walked up the steps saying, "I'm here to meet Mark Ronson, " and that she had joked she thought he was "an old guy with a beard. " He said they talked for four hours and that night wrote "Back to Black, " a night he said "changed my life forever. "
Words of thanks and what the award means
Onstage he told the audience, "It means so much to me to get this award. " He said the music he made with Winehouse is the reason later collaborators know who he is and that he will "always treasure her voice, her talent, our bond — all of it. " He thanked collaborators by name, listing Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Dua Lipa, and elsewhere thanked Miley Cyrus and Queens of the Stone Age. He also thanked his wife Grace Gummer and their two young daughters.
Background details tied to the honour and other recognitions that night
Ronson has previously called the BRIT Award the most "meaningful honour" of his career, saying, "This is the most meaningful honour of my career. I think of the times I've watched artists I revere accept this same award. The idea that I'm now standing in that lineage feels impossible. " He also reflected on his British roots, saying he was born in London but raised in New York, and that the UK artists he’s worked with and British crowds have shaped his work and sustained him as a performer and record-maker.
Record, legacy and other ceremony notes
The collaboration with Winehouse produced the album Back to Black, which was described here as winning five Grammy Awards. The context notes that Winehouse died in July 2011 at age 27 from alcohol poisoning. The night also included the detail that Olivia Dean won four awards, taking home every category she was nominated for.
Discrepancies in accounts of venue, date and age
The available accounts differ on several specifics: one account described the ceremony as taking place on Saturday in Manchester and gave Ronson's age as 50, while another placed the award night at London’s O2 Arena on 28 February and described him as 48. The exact reconciliation of those details is unclear in the provided context.
It is unclear in the provided context what Ronson's next scheduled public appearances or projects will be.
