The BRIT Awards 2020 with Mastercard - Show Programme

GOOD
TIMES…
… AT THE BRIT SCHOOL
Libby Cooper
Staff and students at the BRIT School
are rarely fazed by a famous face.
But they certainly were last autumn
when a certain big star stopped by
its Selhurst campus. In September,
Nile Rodgers came to unveil a
music wing named in his honour.
A couple of months later, YouTube
Music unveiled a state of the art
Film and TV studio facility for the
school to train the next generation
of film makers and original artists.
The Nile Rodgers Music Suite and
YouTube Music Studios sit alongside
another high-profile facility, dedicated to
Beatles producer Sir George Martin. Says
Rodgers: “When I look at it like that then I
feel pretty humbled and overwhelmed - I
never got into this business expecting
my name to be anywhere… except on
the back of an album in very small print!”
The legendary music producer, who has
sold more than 500 million albums and
75 million singles worldwide, has forged
a fruitful relationship with BRIT. Alongside
manager Merck Mercuriadis, he has
added £250,000 to its coffers, mostly
through 2019’s ‘BRIT Awards Viewing
Party’. It was a fabulous fundraiser reprised
tonight as the 2nd Annual Nile Rodgers
BRIT Awards Viewing Party at The Ned.
Nile was excited to see the project
come to fruition, revealing, “It’s a great
honour… I’m very proud of what Merck
and I have accomplished thus far”.
The New Yorker’s own childhood
was marred by struggle, so key to
his involvement is the BRIT School’s
determination to deliver gold-standard
arts education for 14-19 year-olds; it’s a
successful, unique and free-to-access
model which welcomes 700 students
each year through an applications process
that is always - always! - open to all.
You probably know the BRIT story by
now. Founded in 1991 as a unique joint
project between the BRIT Trust (the
fundraising arm of the BPI) and the
Department of Education, it was based
on New York’s High School of Performing
Arts. Almost 30 years later, BRIT has
grown to be an ambitious state school;
built on dreams and achieving them all.
Just look at BRIT alumni, who continue
to succeed in every sector. Recently,
we’ve seen Paralympian Will Bayley
MBE swapping table tennis for Strictly;
and Milly Zero and Clay Milner Russell
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