The Brit Awards: Bowie, Skepta and Little Mix heavily tipped to win on the night

The ceremony will be hosted by Dermot O'Leary and Emma Willis, with performances coming from Ed Sheeran and Little Mix, as well as US stars Katy Perry and Bruno Mars.

There will also be a tribute to pop star George Michael, who died on Christmas Day.

Despite being dubbed "music's biggest night", The Brit Awards have somewhat paled in comparison to the days when MPs were getting buckets of water chucked over their head by Chumbawamba. It's been a long time since anyone considered these annual ceremonies as being fully representative of a nation's musical zeitgeist, but they're interesting to speculate about all the same...

Giving a long-overdue nod to the influence of grime in British music, Skepta and Kano are up for Best Male Solo Artist tonight, alongside soul singer Michael Kiwanuka and David Bowie. Craig David is also in there, but his current musical renaissance isn't likely to win him any awards just yet. Bowie is a cert to get the gong.

The late art-rock icon might just win out in the Best Album department too with his musical denouement Black Star, although The 1975's I Like It When You Sleep.. and Michael Kiwanuka's Love and Hate are in there too, proving that 2016 was stellar year for British music.

Skepta, who won the 2016 Mercury Prize for his self-released album Konnichiwa, is favourite to win best breakthrough artist, competing with fellow grime artist Stormzy.

Pop group Little Mix are tied with Skepta as the most-nominated act on the night - each having three nominations. They'll likely miss out on Best Single to the perennial earworm that is Clean Bandit's 'Rockabye'. Best Group will likely go to the critic-defying The 1975 (although by all accounts Radiohead should take the award) while Best Music Video will go to whoever's music video got a lot of hits on Youtube, probably One Direction.

The Best Female Solo Artist category lets Adele have a rest this year and gives a few other artists a chance. Transgender composer and musician Anohni is wholly deserving of the award; whether she'll get it or not is another matter.

Elsewhere, the Knowles sisters go head-to-head in the International Female Solo Artist category. Beyonce is likely to win, although we'd love to see Christine and the Queens get the recognition she deserves for her stunning 2016 album Chaleur Humaine.

The International Male Solo Artist award will likely go to Drake, although everyone and their mother knows that the true winner should be Leonard Cohen...