BRIT Awards nominations 2021: Five things we’ve learnt
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The Brit Awards in February 2020 were probably music’s last big night out, a chance to see chart-toppers putting on overblown performances in front of a massive crowd at a time when we didn’t realise we would have to do without for so long.
As the organisers announce the nominations for a ceremony delayed until May 11, it feels strange to be a celebrating a year that was missing every major spectacle from Glastonbury down, but the shortlists are as starry as ever. Here are five things we’ve learned.
Women lead the way at last at the Brit Awards 2021 
After 14 of the 15 nominees in last year’s mixed categories were male, this time female artists get a much better showing. Four of the five names in the British Album category, traditionally the biggest prize of the night, are women, and rapper J Hus looks unlikely to need a speech in his pocket when up against Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, Celeste and Jessie Ware. Parks and Celeste, with three nods each following debut albums that arrived on the same day in January, ought to be big news for years to come. In fact the nominations as a whole are a youthful, diverse contrast with the summer festival line-ups that have been announced so far, where heritage rockers still dominate.
British rap is in good shape 
The performances from British Male winner Stormzy and British Album winner Dave were the most memorable of the 2020 ceremony. Even without that pair, this time homegrown rappers are more prevalent than ever. Three of the five British Male nominees, traditionally a prize for Ed Sheeran or Robbie Williams, are rappers. The 10-strong Song of the Year list, too, is half rapped. Over the past year AJ Tracey, at the poppier end of the spectrum, and Headie One, rising from the murky sub-genre drill, have joined J Hus on the A-list. Meanwhile, Nottingham’s triple nominees Young T & Bugsey have proved that you don’t have to be Londoners to join the gold rush.
It won’t be like the Grammys 
By delaying until May and opting to return to the O2 Arena, the BRITs will hope to be in a position to avoid the understated feel of March’s Grammys ceremony in Los Angeles. As it stands, the Brits is planned to be a “test event”, permitted by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to have a larger audience to assess whether more such gatherings can take place. Fingers crossed. The BRITs will also give a warm glow to disgruntled R&B star The Weeknd, who was inexplicably ignored at the Grammys despite his album After Hours being one of the year’s biggest successes. He’s up for International Male here.
It’ll surely be Dua Lipa’s night 
Three nominations, already announced alongside Rising Star winner Griff as the first live performance of the night – Dua Lipa looks set to be the big winner of the evening. Her second album, Future Nostalgia, took the bold step of aiming squarely at the dancefloor despite the fact that there was nowhere to dance, a risk that paid off when it became the only album released in 2020 to reach platinum status in the UK. Unlike the artier Mercury Prize, the BRITs is there to celebrate commercial success. They’ll be certain to send some statues her way at a time when it’s been harder than ever to be a big seller.
But Sam Smith must wait until another year 
The debate in the run-up to the nominations was dominated by the question of where to put Sam Smith, a two-time British Male nominee who came out as non-binary and began using they/them pronouns in 2019. Their lively release Love Goes missed out in the British Album category and they were ineligible elsewhere. “The Brits are committed to evolving the show and the gendered categories are very much under review,” said the organisers. Maybe next time.