I kind of get where you're coming from, but they made Artist of the year to be more inclusive to just end up not including any women. I'd find it similarly odd if they didn't have any men there.

 

The nominations just all seem so lazy imo. Must be a poor panel of judges this time round.

Yeah I get you, I think, like Rooney said, it would make sense to extend the number of nominations a bit.

 

Fred Again seems a bit of a random inclusion for artist of the year (as much as I like him). Can only assume he's performing/a way to attract a younger audience.

For me, he seems to be one of the hottest DJs around right now, definitely feels like he’s dominated the dance scene in the past year and everyone I talk to who listens to dance music have been really enjoying his music.

I wouldn't say there are any really egregious snubs of female artists in the Artist of the Year category to be fair but it is surprising that they'd go ahead with an all-male list anyway as it seems like a pretty obvious controversy bait. I'd maybe have put Charli or Florence + The Machine (a group, but treated as a solo artist by the BRITs historically) on there but idk who I'd replace, they all seem like pretty fair nominees (if pretty predictable and boring aside from Fred again..) Maybe Stormzy. I do agree that it might just be a good idea to expand the list a bit, 5 nominees is quite restrictive.

 

My overwhelming reaction to this nominee list is just apathy. I think most of the nominees make sense, I just don't care, all the BRIT bait artists dropped mostly a bunch of mid or at least inconsistent music this year. There are a few nice nods there but as usual I doubt any of them will be winning aside from possibly Fred again.. in the dance category (the others that I had a nice surprised reaction to were Bonobo, Fontaines D.C. and... that's basically it, Nova Twins getting a couple of nods is interesting too but I've not been as big a fan of their music as I want to be. And I guess I'm glad to see Rina get a nomination but she's in the wrong category as she's not new at all lmao, put her in the pop category replacing one of the several artists who are basically there off the back of a single song, or in Dua's case not even really that...)

 

And Eliza Rose up for the dance category but no LF SYSTEM is a bit weird - at least LF SYSTEM had a couple of other songs that got some radio play!

 

International Artist does have a pretty good lineup actually tbf but it's still very predictable.

The Big Issue have a BIG ISSUE with George Ezra. They are a Mabel and Charli XCX fan.

If your target market is pre-school children and their grudgingly obliging parents, well, George Ezra wins hands down every time.

https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/can-...cian-in-the-uk/

Edited January 13, 20232 yr by Megan_

R&B artists such as Mahalia , Tiana Major , and MNEK as well as the general public are slating The Brits under this tweet for not including any R&B artists yet again in this category .

 

 

@1613573489855967232

 

 

@1613607122926698515

 

 

@1613806728528658432

 

 

 

 

I love Mahalia so much 🥹

those nominations tell me all I need to know, glad to be boycotting this shit :lol: the lack of women in the main artist category can't really be excused here when you have many deserving candidates (Charli, Rina, Florence, Twigs to name a few) but ofc when you're in the business of nominating based on sales/popularity naturally you're gonna choose George Ezra with his nursery rhymes and Stormzy with his album that evaporated from relevance as soon as it dropped

 

Hopefully one day the BRITs will find out that pop and r&b are in fact...*checks*....different genres. as bad as the Grammys are at least they wouldn't hand you a Best Country & Jazz Album award!

 

The cynical part of me is thinking they decided this deliberately to create attention given how terminally low the viewers have been and how increasingly irrelevant the ceremony is becoming these days, although it's still not really made as much of a splash as I thought it would. I do think the idea of gender-neutral categories is good, they've just mucked it up. Hopefully, this won't be used to contribute to the culture war like some tabloids are implying through their headlines...

 

But asides from that, there are a few names I'm happy for (First Aid Kit mainly and have to laugh at Rina being this year's Little Simz), but I just can't get excited about the Brits anymore. Much like most modern award shows, there's just too much behind the scene politics and more focus on spectacle rather than the subject of the awards. Plus, the winners will just be who shows up and performs and who has the biggest social media fanbase as per (and they'll probably throw in a made-up award if one of the nominees that are there doesn't win anything x)

BBC article that addresses the lack of female nominations: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64264069

If one decides to go for gender neutral categories then it's bound to affect the number of female nominees as historically they have never been taken as seriously as male and have to step it up to get on even platform. That said, it's not been a great year for female acts so it's a fair list if you go for acts that deserve nomination along with success. Pop runs in cycles, sometimes female vocals are in sometimes not, and having more "minority/alternative" categories is a way of making sure people get representation. Reducing categories doesn't make it "fairer" it just means the biggest acts win less categories and elbow out others. The Brits isn't the Mercury Music Prize, and it's not the Mobo's, it's always about celebrating and recognizing success. Back in the 70's and 80's there were hardly any big-name female acts so without the Female category they would have won nothing. Kate Bush. Annie Lennox. That was about it (and they had to stretch a point by allowing Annie Lennox a solo mention rather than Eurythmics as a group).

 

One might not personally like the acts who are successful but what's the point of another awards show that give arbitrary awards based on what a small group of people want? The public should have at least one they can vote for (in some categories). If they choose not to watch the show, maybe that's down to the way people view TV these days (streaming) and music (streaming) rather than make an effort to tune in rather than because they are choosing the wrong acts to perform and be nominated. Pretty sure if the Mercury was primetime it would get about the same take-up as Jools Holland would if that was on a bit earlier, and not BRITS-level viewer ratings. Oh, and one big-hit single does not a substantial artist make, it's the body of work over the year that counts, that usually means albums or album-equivalent releases.

 

 

 

George Ezra is the one getting the most stick for his nomination which isn’t helped by his interview on Lorraine. I appreciate there are female artists with number 1 albums but it must be singles success that makes an overall difference. They can joke about the nursery lyrics but the public loved Green Green Grass and Anyone For You.

Edited January 14, 20232 yr by Chloe00x

Lorraine didn't help the situation by saying "it is what it is". George shyed away from the question really and tried to turn it around by considering the nominations as a whole. I can't see any of the 5 of them saying they disagree with the category because they're nominated and won't risk what they've been put up for but then it also shows how reluctant they are to stand up for diversity at the same time

I kind of get where you're coming from, but they made Artist of the year to be more inclusive to just end up not including any women. I'd find it similarly odd if they didn't have any men there.

 

The nominations just all seem so lazy imo. Must be a poor panel of judges this time round.

 

I totally get where you are coming from too of course it is pretty vile that it’s all men, but I agree with Liam I don’t think any female artist has been snubbed and if it is truly about being unbiased to gender then surely it’s the right set of nominations.

 

I think the real concern is that it highlights that yet again there is a lack of commercial success for British female artists, they continue to have an uphill struggle against their male counterparts.

To be honest I find the pop/r&b category more alarming really, there have been plenty of r&b acts who are worthy of a nomination.

To be honest I find the pop/r&b category more alarming really, there have been plenty of r&b acts who are worthy of a nomination.

 

 

I agree with that. I also think it is stupid to lump the two categories together anyway!

To be honest I find the pop/r&b category more alarming really, there have been plenty of r&b acts who are worthy of a nomination.

Yeah I definitely agree with this. Like I said, the point, in my mind, of these genre awards is to shine focus on artists who might not necessarily get a look in for Artist of the Year. Just have R&B as its own category, Pop by nature always gets focus elsewhere, it doesn’t need its own category.

I never understood why pop and R&B were lumped together anyway. Hip-hop and R&B together would make more sense at least. But R&B really should just get its own category.

They could have just increased the number of nominees for Artist of the Year to 10 and solved the problem.

They could have just increased the number of nominees for Artist of the Year to 10 and solved the problem.

I agree with this - effectively merging two categories but keeping the nominee number the same was always going to result in this problem. 10 nominees would make much more sense.

They could have just increased the number of nominees for Artist of the Year to 10 and solved the problem.

 

So simple yet effective! Why has nobody else thought of this!?!?

Probably because there's a good chance that all 10 would be male. The BBC have reported that out of the 70 eligible artists for the Best Artist ward, only 12 were female unfortunately.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64264069