Katy Perry opens the BRIT Awards in style with colourful display... and Beyonce wows in glittering dress while performing hit XO

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Katy Perry opened the BRIT Awards in style on Wednesday night with a sublime version of her hit Dark Horse.

The brunette star took to the stage at London's O2 Arena in a multi-coloured Cleopatra-style outfit, alongside several backing dancers flashing a bit more flesh in colourful attire.

With her hair styled like the ancient Egyptian pharaoh she belted out the lyrics while holding onto a microphone decorated in the same multi-colour design.

Colour injection: Katy Perry performed her hit Dark Horse at the Brit Awards

Host James Corden then joked he was going to wear Katy's outfit but decided against it at the last minute before.

Beyonce continued the impressive American performances at the event by taking to the stage her song XO while dazzling in a glittering long blue dress. 
Ellie Goulding was the first winner of the night, picking up the British Female Solo Artist prize.

Raven-haired star: Katy's appeared to have taken some inspiration from the ancient Egyptian pharaoh for her outfit

Walking up to the stage in a different dress to the one she wore on the red carpet, the 27-year-old star said: 'Uh … Prince. Thank you so much, I genuinely am in shock. I'm about to say a thank you to my lovely management.

She then nervously ran her hand through her hair as she struggled to know what to say before adding: 'I'm shaking. Thank you so much this means so much to me I can't even tell you.'
Katy then put on a stunning performance and James introduced Kylie Minogue and Pharrell Williams to present the International Male Solo Artist award.

Dazzling: Beyonce performed XO on stage at the Brits in a glittering blue dress

Pharrell encouraged the crowd to cheer Kylie and she repaid the favour before they introduced the nominees for the accolade.
Bruno Mars was announced as the winner of the award and he took to the stage
'Thank you so much, thank you guys. It's an honour to be in this category with … I want to thank the fans. We love coming out here and performing for y'all.'
He then thanked several members of his team as well as his band and Mark Ronson before adding: 'We've got to get ready, we're going to perform for you all.'
Before introducing the winner of British Breakthrough Act, James quipped: 'Let's have a look at who is going to become future great acts or future Big Reunion acts in Butlins.'

Shocked: Bastille looked surprised about winning the British Breakthrough Act trophy

Fearne Cotton and Tinie Tempah then took to the stage to present the award to Bastille, who said: 'Wow. This is entirely unexpected for all of us.'
They then thanked 'everyone we've ever known' including their management before adding: 'I think that this time last year anyone in the room let alone us would've ever thought we'd even be here so thank you.
'I'm going to shut-up now. Thank you very much.'

Really? One Direction told host James they hadn't seen each other for the past three months

James then chatted to One Direction and started off his conversation by asking Liam Payne how the group are feeling.
He replied: 'We're having a great night, it's the first time we've seen each other in three months maybe.'
Speaking to James, Harry added: 'It's the Brits and it's exciting. You're doing a great job.'
James then jokingly asked the boy band if they have spoken to Justin Bieber following his recent arrest.
He said: 'Who was the first person to visit him in prison? Did any of you tell him what people do to people who look like him in prison?'
Niall then nervously laughed and James turned the microphone to Louis and asked if he had any advice for Justin.
Louis said: 'Keep strong and keep doing what you're doing.'

Wowing the crowd: Bruno performed his hit Treasure with his band

Shortly before Bruno appeared on stage James joked that his performance might not quite live up to the scale of his half-time performance at the Super Bowl in early February.
He said: 'Without factoring in the ITV2 repeat it's hard to say which will be the bigger gig.'
Wearing a cap and black leather jacket, Bruno performed his hit Treasure with his band.
Lily Allen took to the stage to present the Best British Group award but appeared unsure what she was supposed to do and hesitantly looked to the side of the stage before saying: 'It's nice to be back … Do I just go straight into it? What? Announce it? No … the nominees for Best British Group are...'
Lily made no mistakes as she announced Artic Monkeys as the winner of the prize and their frontman Alex Turner took to the microphone for the acceptance speech.
He quipped: 'Well there's that £15 we put on One Direction to win down the drain then innit.'
The singer then added: 'There's a lot of people who require thanks for this but they need to hear their names read out about as much as you need to hear another list of people's names read out.'

 It's getting hot in here: Arctic Monkeys kicked off proceedings by performing their hit R U Mine? on stage, which featured huge A and M symbols on fire

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley then introduced One Direction as the winner of the Global Success Award.
The group took to the stage with Niall Horan on crutches but there was no sign of Harry Styles.
Liam asked the crowd: 'Has anyone seen the curly lad? Right, there's four of us now.'
He then continued: 'I want to say thank you to our international team, management, the fans.' 
Then suddenly Harry was then seen running up to the stage to join his bandmates and grabbed the microphone. He told the audience: 'I'm really sorry I was having a wee, the toilets are ages away!
'A massive thank you to all our incredible fans. Thank you.'
Later in the show, James said to Harry: 'I don't care what you were doing in there, as long as you were careful.' Beyonce was then introduced to the crowd to perform her song XO while dazzling in a glittering long blue dress.