Several artists were unable to make the award show the evening of the event. When Adele had won Performance of the Year and British Artist of the Year, she was on a prerecorded video call to accept the awards. At the time she was in the United States of America and could not be there in person. These awards were given to her after her recent single "Hello" released and helped her maintain her status as a popular artist. American singer, Taylor Swift won the International Artist of the Year award but could not make her appearance at the award show either while she was in Australia for her 1989 World Tour. Taylor also accepted her award over a prerecorded message for the audience. Both artists joked about the weight of the award in their acceptance speech. This joke continued in the evening as performer, Hozier, also referenced the weight of the award during his acceptance speech for Song of the Year for his international hit, "Take Me to Church". He also mentioned the possibility of the award being used as a weapon for the popular board game Cluedo. BBC awarded Jack Garratt for the BBC Introducing Artist of the Year.
