Dermot O’Leary celebrates 20 years at BBC Radio 2

This morning’s show was a grand occasion for Dermot O’Leary on BBC Radio 2 as he celebrated 20 years at the station.

To mark the anniversary, he invited some of his favourite bands who have performed on the show – Elbow, Camera Obscura and Editors – to each perform a track live in the studio.

He also dipped into the archive of the 1000 live sessions performed on his shows across the past two decades, from the likes of Amy Winehouse, Adele, Paolo Nutini and Arctic Monkeys.

Since he joined Radio 2, Dermot has won three Sony Gold Music Awards, Music Week’s Radio Show of the Year and TRIC Award’s Radio Presenter of the Year.

When he joined Radio 2 his brief was to help break bands, so he has given many artists their first radio play along with early sessions for artists including Adele, Ed Sheeran, Bastille, Hozier, George Ezra, Rita Ora, Mumford, Paloma, The Feeling, Jess Glynne, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Lewis Capaldi, Mika, Lily Allen, Florence, Emeli Sandé, and even David Brent!

Dermot has broadcast from The Brits, South by Southwest, Glastonbury, Latitude, Feastival, Cambridge Folk Fest, Live 8, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

He also hosts the weekly Alternative Sounds of the 90s, plus Radio 2 All Stars where chats to fellow Radio 2 presenters about their career behind the mic.

You can listen back to 20 Years of Dermot on BBC Sounds.