The Record of the Year

The most frequent winner was Irish boy band Westlife, with four awards (1999, 2000, 2003 and 2005), two of which were consecutive. The only other artist to win multiple awards was American singer Lady Gaga, with two awards (2009 and 2011).

The 2008 winner, "Rockstar" by Canadian band Nickelback, was the first winner from outside the British Isles.

The only artist to receive multiple nominations in the same year was American rapper Pitbull, who was nominated as both a lead and featured artist in 2011, although he never won.

Year	Song	Artist	Host
1998	"No Matter What"	Boyzone	Denise Van Outen
1999	"Flying Without Wings"	Westlife
2000	"My Love"
2001	"Don't Stop Movin'"	S Club 7	Ant & Dec
2002	"Unchained Melody"	Gareth Gates
2003	"Mandy"	Westlife	Cat Deeley
2004	"Thunderbirds Are Go"	Busted
2005	"You Raise Me Up"	Westlife	Vernon Kay
2006	"Patience"	Take That	N/A
2007	"Bleeding Love"	Leona Lewis
2008	"Rockstar"	Nickelback
2009	"Poker Face"	Lady Gaga
2010	"Fireflies"	Owl City
2011	"Born This Way"	Lady Gaga
2012	"Somebody That I Used to Know"	Gotye feat. Kimbra

Many have criticised the 'Record of the Year' Award, as they feel the nominations are unfairly dominated by pop acts and thus the winner is usually not the "true" record of the year. One suggested reason for this is that it is done to attract young girls, who the organisers are sure will watch the televised final and vote for the records. Others have argued that it is an attempt to boost the sales of pop artists' albums, which traditionally have limited success relative to their singles, in the crucial pre-Christmas period. Of the examples cited as evidence for this, the most famous include the exclusion of rap artist Eminem's "My Name Is..." in 1999 as he was unavailable to perform live on the Record of the Year final and the omission from nominations of rock act The Darkness's track "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" in 2003 despite being one of the highest selling singles of the year.

Memorable moments from the TV show include, among other incidents, Wyclef Jean forgetting the words to his hit "Perfect Gentlemen" whilst performing on stage.

In spite of this, many winners of the award, as well as the organisers, argue its significance and integrity on the basis that it represents the views of the public, rather than critics. It inspired Simon Cowell to get into television and he attributes the show for his entry into the media. Some may argue this is not entirely a good thing. However, it always gets massive ratings. Indeed, Westlife have often said that their first win for the single "Flying Without Wings" was the most exciting moment in their career. Unsurprisingly, critics eventually began to say that it was just an award to prove Westlife were still around, hence why Heat Magazine dubbed it "Westlife Record of the Year" in 2004. However, a counter-argument is that this, and similar awards based on phone polls, are a true representation of public opinion, a possibly better indication than sales, which calls BBC Radio 1's countdown of the 20 best selling singles of the last calendar year a more accurate indication of the record of the year. Still, the chosen tracks on the televised Record of the Year contest reflect the views of the television programme viewers only, and not necessarily the music-buying public at large, who might not phone in multiple times to vote for their favourite song. In contrast, the Radio 1 end-of-year chart includes all music sales in all formats.

Below is a list of companies that have sponsored the award since it began:

1998–2001: Britannia Music
2002–2005: T-Mobile

From 1998 to 2004, the theme music was the club track Disco Cop by Blue Adonis.

In 2005, ITV used a specially recorded track.