“There’s nothing more iconic than Manchester stealing The BRITs from London.”A giant BRIT award was positioned at Manchester Piccadilly train station to announce the arrival of the ceremony moving out of London for the first time ever(Image: Brit Awards)

It has been hailed a “landmark shift”, a “bold move” and a “massive coup”. Yes, The BRIT awards are moving from London to Manchester, and it’s been sending ripples through the music industry ever since the announcement was made on Monday.

Manchester will host the glittering ceremony that welcomes the world’s biggest music stars, taking it out of the capital for the first time in its near-50-year history.

And for the city’s leaders who have helped broker the two-year deal, it’s not before time.

As Manchester Council leader Bev Craig quipped: “There’s nothing more iconic than Manchester stealing The BRITs from London.”

Even the Prime Minister hailed the move, with Sir Keir Starmer writing on social media: “Take That, Joy Division, New Order and now The BRITs.

“Great to see Manchester’s music legacy continue as they take centre stage and host the BRIT Awards for the very first time.”

For Manchester’s political leaders, this has been a long time coming. The BRITS will take place at Manchester’s Co-op Live in February 2026, and again in 2027 in what will be the awards’ 50th anniversary year.

The announcement builds on the momentum of big events that the city has successfully hosted in recent years – including the MTV EMAs for the first time in November, and the year before bringing Chanel to the Northern Quarter for its huge Metier D’Art show.

Both of those occasions proved that the city could not only cope, but excel, at hosting events of international calibre.

Representatives for The BRIT Awards, Co-op Live, Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority gathered at Co-op Live for The BRITs announcement on Monday(Image: Brit Awards)

Manchester Council leader Bev told the MEN: “I think it really shows where the city is at when it comes not just to our music reputation, but our increasingly global reputation we have for staging large, impactful and major events.

“I would say this comes as part of a long term strategy in Manchester, led by the council and our partners, to make sure we’re attracting the right kinds of events to come to the city.

“We’ve seen recently of course from Chanel to MTV, these events bring millions of pounds into our economy, they help sustain jobs, they help sustain hotels, people come and spend, and that’s all really great.

“We wanted, and we hoped, to have The BRITs come to Manchester for some time now, and I think the opening of Co-op Live has given us the world class venue we would have needed to stage that kind of event. It feels like the perfect alignment.”

Sabrina Carpenter performed at the 2025 BRITS – but who will appear in Manchester?(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Bev added that The BRITs should be congratulated for “looking outside of London as part of a wider effort to make sure the music events community reaches the whole country”.

But the ambition doesn’t end there. Bev says the strategy of the council is to continue to build on the momentum for the future too.

She said: “There is an element of truth that if you can show you can pull off one event, it opens doors to future events, but there is also something in intentionally building a momentum in Manchester.

“Too often I think Manchester is thought of in terms of our past glories, not in terms of our new and emerging music scene, so we’re also keen as we bring events forward we’re able to include the work that needs to be done to bring some of our new artists to the fore as well.”

She added: “The best way to maintain momentum is to keep adding bigger and bigger things into the equation.” For Brand Manchester this is also a massive platform.

In being chosen to host the awards it has proved that it has the kind of infrastructure to cope with such a large scale event – not least thanks to the number of luxury five star hotels, a connected transport system and logistics to deal with the behind-the-scenes organisation.

And naturally the ceremony itself will see the eyes of the music and showbiz world trained directly onto Manchester. The awards will be broadcast live on ITV on the night, and there’s already feverish speculation as to who may well be in attendance.

Harry Styles pictured at the 2023 BRIT Awards – fans are hoping he will be involved in the 2026 Manchester ceremony(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Bev said: “You’re looking at an endorsement not just of our music scene, not just of the music industry, but endorsement of us as a city. We know there’s been a lot of global attention on London for some time and this to me is Manchester’s moment.

“It feels like it’s been a long time coming, but it does feel like its the right moment. The role that Sony and BPI have played in supporting the ambition to bring it to Manchester has really helped.

“Now is Manchester’s moment and it’s my job to make sure we get The BRITs out of the way successfully and keep bringing more world class events to the city.”

Industry insiders have told the Manchester Evening News that London’s mayoral office are smarting at the news, in a week where Sadiq Khan also hit out at the Government’s spending review that he felt sees London “levelled down” amid more spending for the regions.

But the official line from the London Mayor’s office is that they’re delighted for Manchester.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London told the MEN: “It’s great news for Manchester and music fans who live in the North-West.

“London has been proud to be home to the Brit Awards for more than three decades and I know they’ll enjoy the honour of hosting one of the music industry’s most important events of the year.”

A giant BRITs statuette was positioned at Manchester Piccadilly to announce the move from London(Image: Brit Awards)

Taking place on February 28, the event will also have a huge impact for the city’s hospitality scene. Some of the city’s top hotels are already on standby with block bookings of VIPs for the occasion.

Bev said “This will be bigger than any music event that we’ve ever hosted before at this scale, and we know that we’ve got all the capabilities to do it.

“It will be a massive boost to industries that we know historically have had some quiet times in February, I’d put food and beverage, retail, hospitality in that category in the same way as our hoteliers, so it’s a great month.

“That’s why we’re so confident when we talk about it adding value to the economy we talk about it bringing new people in to spend, the scale of this event means it will be a massive boost for many of our businesses in what would often be quite a quiet time.”

Key stakeholders celebrate the news of The BRITS heading to Manchester at Co-op Live this week(Image: Brit Awards)

The two-year deal will allow Manchester to “prove the concept that it can be a success in somewhere like Manchester.” The music industry in Manchester has also welcomed the move.

Rose Marley, chair of Beyond the Music, said: “I’d say Manchester did what Manchester does well, the council working with the Mayor’s office, Co-op Live and then a whole host of support, to come up with creative ideas to really sell the city, London did not give it up easily.

“What we have to do now though is make sure this event is meaningful for the people that live and work here, especially the grassroots venues and people whose livelihood is in the music business.

“There’s major opportunities from skills development through to trade that if the city gets this right, could have a legacy for a long time to come.”

As for how, exactly, Manchester managed to swipe the ceremony from London could be best put down to the famous saying that “we do things differently here”.

Bev said: “We naturally as council behave differently, and the reason we do, is that we recognise if we don’t convene and bring people into our city, it doesn’t automatically mean that somebody else will.

“So we’ve always had in our DNA, in our leadership, that we don’t just run an organisation, we run a place – and we’ve got an ambition for our place.

“It might sound twee but not every council operates like that. We’ve invested in things over the year and we’ve taken risks. The reality is we focus on the day-to-day stuff, we focus on improving people’s lives, but we always invest in the future.

“We’re not just doing something right, we’re creating a product, we’re making it easier for people to land in the city, and they love it when they come.

“That’s the overwhelming thing I take away from businesses, they go to their boards, pitch Manchester, and the reality is they really enjoy being here.”