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The Record of the Year was an award voted by the United Kingdom public. For many years it was given in conjunction with a television programme on ITV of the same name.

At the beginning of December, a shortlist of twenty (later extended to thirty) songs were decided by an expert industry panel and showcased in a preview programme, with the public then invited to choose their favourite by phone vote, and the ten songs with the most votes advanced to the live show the following week.

The live show, held on a Saturday just before Christmas, was split into two parts. In the first part, the ten songs were represented as either live performances or pre-recorded performances via satellite if the artist was unable to travel to the UK and on some occasions, if a performance of any kind was not possible, the song was represented by an airing of its music video. After all of the songs had been presented, the phone lines were opened and in later years, voting was also conducted by both online and text message. In the second part, aired around one or two hours later, the results of the vote were announced with each ITV region represented by its own spokesperson to announce the results of their local area. The artist with the most votes was declared the winner and received the trophy before performing their winning song again to close the programme.

It became one of the highest rated music TV ceremonies in the UK, boosting sales of CDs and then downloads in the crucial fortnight before Christmas every year. For that reason, it was much respected by the industry, labels, publishers and retailers. It was the only music award in the UK to be chosen by the public.

The award began in 1998 and was televised on ITV for eight years before being dropped in 2006 after disagreements over the phone voting element. Since then, it had been an online poll, administered through the Record of the Year website. In 2013, the online poll was axed, signaling the end of the award.

Winners

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 North America.

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 by year

1998

The first Record of the Year took place on 12 December 1998 and presented by Denise van Outen. The ten finalists were:^[1]

Song	Artist	Result[2]
"No Matter What"	Boyzone	1st - 276,741 votes
"My Heart Will Go On"	Celine Dion	2nd - 135,648 votes
"Angels"	Robbie Williams	3rd - 117,365 votes
"One for Sorrow"	Steps	4th - 106,506 votes
"Believe"	Cher	5th - 91,565 votes
"Got the Feelin'"	5ive	6th - 80,953 votes
"C'est la Vie"	B*Witched	7th - 67,076 votes
"How Do I Live"	LeAnn Rimes	8th - 44,597 votes
"Never Ever"	All Saints	9th - 42,522 votes
"Feel It"	The Tamperer featuring Maya	10th - 37,543 votes

1999

The second Record of the Year took place on 11 December 1999 and presented by Denise van Outen. The ten finalists were:^[3]

Song	Artist	Notes
"Flying Without Wings"	Westlife
"...Baby One More Time"	Britney Spears
"Blue (Da Ba Dee)"	Eiffel 65
"Bring It All Back"	S Club 7
"If You Had My Love"	Jennifer Lopez
"Livin' la Vida Loca"	Ricky Martin
"Mambo No. 5"	Lou Bega	Pérez Prado cover
"Perfect Moment"	Martine McCutcheon	Edyta Górniak cover
"That Don't Impress Me Much"	Shania Twain
"When You Say Nothing at All"	Ronan Keating	Keith Whitley cover

2000

The third Record of the Year took place on 9 December 2000 and presented by Denise van Outen. In a change to the first two years, the votes that each song received from each region were converted into a points value (e.g. the least voted song received 1 point, and the highest voted song received 10 points). The ten finalists were:^[4]

Song	Artist	Result
"My Love"	Westlife	1st - 129 points
"Rock DJ"	Robbie Williams	2nd - 121 points
"Reach"	S Club 7	3rd - 114 points
"Life Is a Rollercoaster"	Ronan Keating	4th - 103 points
"Fill Me In"	Craig David	5th - 84 points
"It Feels So Good"	Sonique	6th - 71 points
"Pure Shores"	All Saints	7th - 60 points
"Rise"	Gabrielle	8th - 34 points
"Gotta Tell You"	Samantha Mumba	9th - 29 points
"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)"	Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor	10th - 25 points

2001

The fourth Record of the Year took place on 8 December 2001. Ant & Dec presented the show for the first time. For the first time, in addition to the regional phone vote, viewers could cast their vote online, the result of which was announced as an individual set of points. The ten finalists were:^[5]

Song	Artist	Result[6]
"Don't Stop Movin'"	S Club 7	1st - 139 points
"All Rise"	Blue	2nd - 135 points
"Can't Get You Out of My Head"	Kylie Minogue	3rd - 124 points
"Pure and Simple"	Hear'Say	4th - 109 points
"Whole Again"	Atomic Kitten	5th - 82 points
"Teenage Dirtbag"	Wheatus	6th - 81 points
"It Wasn't Me"	Shaggy	7th - 62 points
"Survivor"	Destiny's Child	8th - 38 points
"Perfect Gentleman"	Wyclef Jean	9th - 36 points
"Do You Really Like It?"	DJ Pied Piper and the Masters of Ceremonies	10th - 19 points

2002

The fifth Record of the Year took place on 7 December 2002 and presented by Ant & Dec. The results format was changed from this year onwards, the five songs with the lowest votes were eliminated from the scoreboard and only the top five songs went forward to receive points from the regional vote. Text message voting was also introduced this year; like the online vote the previous year, these results had their own individual set of points awarded. The ten finalists were:

Song	Artist	Notes
"Unchained Melody"	Gareth Gates	Todd Duncan cover
"A Little Less Conversation"	Elvis vs. JXL	Remix of Elvis's 1968 song
"Colourblind"	Darius
"Evergreen"	Will Young	Westlife cover
"Hero"	Enrique Iglesias
"If Tomorrow Never Comes"	Ronan Keating	Garth Brooks cover
"Just a Little"	Liberty X
"Kiss Kiss"	Holly Valance	Cover of "Şımarık" by Tarkan, based on a previous cover by Stella Soleil
"The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)"	Atomic Kitten	Cover of "The Tide Is High" by the Paragons
"Whenever, Wherever"	Shakira

2003

The sixth Record of the Year took place on 6 December 2003. Ant & Dec were unable to return as hosts due to their commitments presenting Pop Idol; and the pair were replaced as hosts by Cat Deeley. The ten finalists were:

Song	Artist	Notes
"Mandy"	Westlife	Cover of "Brandy" by Scott English
"Be Faithful"	Fatman Scoop
"Bring Me to Life"	Evanescence
"Crazy in Love"	Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z (both )
"If You're Not the One"	Daniel Bedingfield
"Make Luv"	Room 5 feat. Oliver Cheatham
"Sweet Dreams My LA Ex"	Rachel Stevens
"Where Is the Love?"	The Black Eyed Peas
"White Flag"	Dido
"Year 3000"	Busted

2004

The seventh Record of the Year took place on 4 December 2004 and was hosted by Cat Deeley. The ten finalists were: