Pharrell Williams and Ed Sheeran won big at the first BBC Music Awards last night (11.12.14).
The ‘Happy’ hitmaker – who accepted his two awards for Song of the Year and International Artist of the Year via live satellite link from Los Angeles – praised the UK for lifting him to "unimaginable heights".
Accepting his award he said: "The UK has always been amazing to me and so many other artists who just want to do different things … Those things happen in the UK because you love music, first and foremost.
"It’s just been an amazing experience and a great journey. I just want to say thank you to BBC, Radio 1, Radio 2, 1Xtra and the countless amazing English fans that have just lifted my life to unimaginable heights. Thank you so much."
The 41-year-old music producer dedicated his Song of the Year award for ‘Happy’ to his British fans.
He said: "I often say in interviews: the YouTube views that we get or the purchases that are made on our songs. The decision to stream the songs is not ours, as writers and producers, we are beholding to what the audience thinks and what you guys want to do.
"So when you say ‘Song of the Year’, it’s not really my award, it’s your award. As I said before, the folks in the UK have just been so incredibly generous … Again, I wanna say thank you to everyone and their great nation."
Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran picked up the gong for British Artist of the Year.
Speaking to accept his award, the ‘Thinking Out Loud’ hitmaker said: "I just wanna say a massive thank you to everyone whose bought a record, bought a ticket, streamed on YouTube, streamed on Spotify … I don’t know if anyone here has, but thank you so much.
"Radio 1 and 1Xtra were the first people to ever play [my music] and that broke everything through for me. BBC have been such big supporters so I wanna say a massive thank you to them."
The show also saw performances from some of the world’s biggest artists including Coldplay, One Direction and Ellie Goulding as well as the BBC Introducing Award winner’s Catfish and the Bottlemen
The show was ended by Tom Jones and Paloma Faith who sang a rendition of ‘God Only Knows’, accompanied by a 200 strong choir.
Pharrell Williams and Ed Sheeran win at BBC Music Awards
