The Record of the Year was an award voted by the United Kingdom public. For many years it was given in conjunction with a television programme on ITV of the same name.
At the beginning of December, a shortlist of twenty (later extended to thirty) songs were decided by an expert industry panel and showcased in a preview programme, with the public then invited to choose their favourite by phone vote, and the ten songs with the most votes advanced to the live show the following week.
The live show, held on a Saturday just before Christmas, was split into two parts. In the first part, the ten songs were represented as either live performances or pre-recorded performances via satellite if the artist was unable to travel to the UK and on some occasions, if a performance of any kind was not possible, the song was represented by an airing of its music video. After all of the songs had been presented, the phone lines were opened and in later years, voting was also conducted by both online and text message. In the second part, aired around one or two hours later, the results of the vote were announced with each ITV region represented by its own spokesperson to announce the results of their local area. The artist with the most votes was declared the winner and received the trophy before performing their winning song again to close the programme.
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.
The most frequent winner was Irish boy band Westlife, with four awards (1999, 2000, 2003 and 2005), two of which were consecutive. The only other artist to win multiple awards was American singer Lady Gaga, with two awards (2009 and 2011).
The 2008 winner, "Rockstar" by Canadian band Nickelback, was the first winner from North America.
The only artist to receive multiple nominations in the same year was American rapper Pitbull, who was nominated as both a lead and featured artist in 2011, although he never won.
The first Record of the Year took place on 12 December 1998 and presented by Denise van Outen. The ten finalists were:[1]
The second Record of the Year took place on 11 December 1999 and presented by Denise van Outen. The ten finalists were:[3]
The third Record of the Year took place on 9 December 2000 and presented by Denise van Outen. In a change to the first two years, the votes that each song received from each region were converted into a points value (e.g. the least voted song received 1 point, and the highest voted song received 10 points). The ten finalists were:[4]
The fourth Record of the Year took place on 8 December 2001. Ant & Dec presented the show for the first time. For the first time, in addition to the regional phone vote, viewers could cast their vote online, the result of which was announced as an individual set of points. The ten finalists were:[5]
The fifth Record of the Year took place on 7 December 2002 and presented by Ant & Dec. The results format was changed from this year onwards, the five songs with the lowest votes were eliminated from the scoreboard and only the top five songs went forward to receive points from the regional vote. Text message voting was also introduced this year; like the online vote the previous year, these results had their own individual set of points awarded. The ten finalists were:
The sixth Record of the Year took place on 6 December 2003. Ant & Dec were unable to return as hosts due to their commitments presenting Pop Idol; and the pair were replaced as hosts by Cat Deeley. The ten finalists were:
The seventh Record of the Year took place on 4 December 2004 and was hosted by Cat Deeley. The ten finalists were:
The eighth Record of the Year took place on 10 December 2005 and was hosted by Vernon Kay. The text message vote was incorporated into the regional vote for this year. It would prove to be the final year in which a television show was held to determine the winner of the award. The ten finalists were:[7]
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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's track "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" in 2003 despite being one of the highest selling singles of the year.
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 BBC 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.
Below is a list of companies that have sponsored the award since it began:
From 1998 to 2004, the theme music was the club track "Disco Cop" by Blue Adonis. In 2005, ITV used a specially recorded track.