You Need To Watch Dave’s Searing BRITs Awards Performance (Even If You Don’t Know Who He Is)
After his performance, "who is Dave" trended on Twitter, with viewers wondering who the rapper was behind the incredibly moving, political performance.
If you’re not across Dave, you’re not alone. His performance at the 2020 BRIT Awards made “who is Dave” trend on UK Twitter, with viewers wondering who the hell was behind the night’s most memorable, politically charged performance.
Dave — aka David Orobosa Omoregie — beat out Harry Styles, Stormzy, Lewis Capaldi and Michael Kiwanuka for Best Album at the awards, for his debut album PSYCHODRAMA. He’d already taken home the Mercury Prize back in September, becoming just the second act to win both for the same album, following in the Arctic Monkeys’ footsteps.
But it was his performance of ‘Black’, an ode to black experience in the UK, that was his crowning moment, thanks to a moving, simple visual display and verses which touched upon Grenfell Tower, Meghan Markle and reparations, and called UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson a racist.
Performed around a double piano and accompanied by a string quartet, the 21-year-old rapper called out the government’s flailing response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, where 72 people died in a fire which spread due to cladding which didn’t follow building regulations.
The line, demanding accomodation for those displaced, echoed those made two years ago by Stormzy during the 2018 BRIT awards, highlighting the government’s continued pitiful response.
@ #BRITs the TRUTH hurts.
Stormzy 2018: “Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell… just forgot about Grenfell, you criminals, & you got the cheek to call us savages”.
Dave 2020: “truth is our prime minister’s a real racist… Grenfell residents still need accommodation”. pic.twitter.com/yB4N7P5PCO
— ????????Craig Beaton?? Free Palestine (@CraigLBeaton) February 19, 2020
Dave then called Johnson a racist for his lack of care towards Grenfell victims.
“It is racist whether or not it feels racist, the truth is out Prime Minister’s a real racist,” he rapped, “they say ‘you should be grateful we’re the least racist’, I say ‘the least racist is still racist’.”
In a statement to the BBC, Home Secretary Priti Patel said, “I don’t know how much [Dave] knows about the prime minister and whether he actually has met the prime minister or knows the prime minister.”
“I work with the prime minister, I know Boris Johnson very well, no way is he a racist, so I think that is a completely wrong comment and it’s the wrong assertion to make against our prime minister.”
Dave also rapped about Meghan Markle’s treatment by the UK media, and the need for reparations for those impacted by the 2018 Windrush scandal, where at least 60 people, many UK citizens, were wrongly deported to the Carribbean.
He also paid tribute to Jack Merritt, one of two fatal victims of the 2019 London Bridge stabbings, a 25-year-old and co-ordinator of a Cambridge university prison rehabilitation programme. Speaking at the time of his death, his father said Merritt “would not wish his death to be used as the pretext for more draconian sentences or for detaining people unnecessarily.”
The additions only strengthen an already incredibly moving political anthem, and speaks to Dave’s talents. Watch below.