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Duffy was queen of the Brits last night after she won three awards and left the favourites Coldplay out in the cold. The 24-year-old Welsh singer-songwriter, who released her first album, Rockferry, last March, saw off challenges from more established acts to take the awards for British Album, British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act. “I’m starting to recognise your faces,” she told the crowd as she strode on to the stage for the second time.

Her triumphs meant that Coldplay, who had been expected to win something from their four nominations, left with nothing. They were frustrated in the Best Single category by Girls Aloud, who won for their song The Promise.

The ceremony, held at Earls Court Arena in West London, was hosted by Kylie Minogue and the Gavin and Stacey actors James Corden and Matthew Horne. There were performances by U2, Girls Aloud and Kings of Leon, who triumphed in the International Group and International Album categories.

In a renaissance in heavy metal music, Iron Maiden were named Best British Live Act, 29 years after they released their first album. Paul Weller was named British Male Solo Artist. Weller, who was recognised for his ninth solo studio album, 22 Dreams, took advantage of a weak category to win his award but his triumph was not entirely unexpected: a series of carefully orchestrated gambles at William Hill over the weekend led the bookmaker to cry foul and suspend betting.

Elbow, the journeymen of British rock music, were named Best British Group, beating the previous Brit winners Take That. Until the past six months they had been touring virtually unnoticed for nearly twenty years but their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid, catapulted them to stardom and a Mercury Music Award.

In the international solo categories, the hip-hop artist Kanye West took Best Male and fellow American Katy Perry Best Female.

Two of the awards had been announced before the event. The Pet Shop Boys, who performed live with Brandon Flowers, lead singer of the Killers, scooped the Outstanding Contribution to Music title, and a new act, Florence and the Machine, took the Critics’ Choice Award.

The awards had a distinctly British flair this year, in celebration of the nation’s triumph at the Grammy Awards two weeks ago, when British acts took seven of the ten premier categories. Ged Doherty, the chairman of Sony Music, which oversees the Brit Awards, said: “This year more than ever we’ve deliberately gone down the route of best of British. We could have put on more American acts but we chose not to go down that route.”

The winners of most of the categories were chosen by a panel made up of 1,000 judges, including music critics, journalists and radio presenters. The British Single award was voted for on the night by the public.

Although the ceremony has seen a number of scandals, with Jarvis Cocker memorably waving his bottom at Michael Jackson as the American performed in 1996, this year was relatively tame. However, her earlier successes seemed to go to Duffy’s head after the event, when Sky News had to cut short an interview with her and apologise after she used the F-word.

At the after-show events, Coldplay shrugged off their disappointment. The group hotfooted it from the Brits ceremony at Earls Court, to headline a concert in aid of War Child, the children’s charity.

“We just came back from Japan and we lost the Brits, so it’s basically been a shit day,” Chris Martin, the group’s lead singer, told the 2,000 capacity crowd at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire theatre.

The band were an hour late coming on stage, but sent the audience into raptures by performing live with Gary Barlow, of Take That, and Bono, the lead singer of U2.

The band performed Back For Good, the Take That number one track, with Barlow, before Bono sent the audience into hysterics by taking to the stage with The Killers and Coldplay, to perform the American band’s hit single All These Things I’ve Done.

The winners

British Album Duffy – Rockferry

British Group Elbow

British Single Girls Aloud – The Promise

British Male Solo Artist Paul Weller

British Female Solo Artist Duffy

British Breakthrough Act Duffy

British Live Act Iron Maiden

International Album Kings of Leon – Only by the Night

International Group Kings of Leon

International Male Solo Artist Kanye West

International Female Solo Artist Katy Perry

Critics’ Choice Award Florence & the Machine

British Producer of the Year Bernard Butler

Outstanding Contribution to Music Pet Shop Boys

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