Artist News Awards

BRIT nominees unleashed – didn’t they all do well?

By | Published on Friday 15 January 2016

BRIT Awards 2016

So, are you nominated? Well, are you? I’m not. But I didn’t want to be nominated. This is 2016. Not being nominated is the new being nominated. Everyone knows that. So well done to all you artists who managed to avoid the shame of being shortlisted for a BRIT Award this year.

Some of you achieved it through inactivity of course, and that doesn’t really count. These congratulations are really reserved for those who got very busy releasing music in 2015 but still managed to avoid the BRIT nominations quagmire. Perhaps you achieved that by creating something far too magnificent for the populist BRITs Academy to select. Or perhaps you went for the option of putting out something shit instead. Some people say that’s the easy option, but I’m not so sure. So a round of applause please for all the shit music makers.

But back to the noms. We all know British music has been punching above its weight in recent years, and that’s confirmed once again in this latest batch of BRIT shortlists. 100% of the nominations for British Male, British Female, British Group, British Breakthrough, British Single, British Album, British Producer and British Video are for British talent. Proof, once again, that the UK record industry is ahead of the game, and delivering top value for the British economy. UK Music should put that in an infographic.

Calvin Harris, James Bay, Aphex Twin, Mark Ronson and Jamie XX are all celebrated for their male-ish-ness in the BRITs lists this year, so well done them; while Adele, Jess Glynne, Laura Marling, Florence And The Machine and Amy Winehouse have been indentified for their top skills in being female. Or having been female in Winehouse’s case, I guess. She’s not the only posthumous nominee, by the way, because One Direction are up for Best Group. And we all know they’re dead. Hiatus indeed!

Anyway, enough expert analysis, here are your BRITs shortlists. And before you start dissing the BRITs Academy of pundits and industry types who vote each year, take a look at the shortlists for Best Single and Best Video. Yeah, those are based on record sales and YouTube plays, and look how that turned out. All hail the Academy I say. The 2016 BRITs occur on 24 Feb in Britain. Yes! The UK even secured the rights to host this year’s BRIT Awards. There’s just no stopping you guys.

British Female: Adele, Amy Winehouse, Florence And The Machine, Jess Glynne, Laura Marling.

British Male: Aphex Twin, Calvin Harris, James Bay, Jamie XX, Mark Ronson.

British Group: Blur, Coldplay, Foals, One Direction, Years & Years.

British Breakthrough: Catfish And The Bottlemen, James Bay, Jess Glynne, Wolf Alice, Years & Years.

British Producer (also part of the MPG Awards): Charlie Andrew, Mark Ronson, Mike Crossey, Tom Dalgety.

International Female: Ariana Grande, Björk, Courtney Barnett, Lana Del Rey, Meghan Trainor.

International Male: Drake, Father John Misty, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd.

International Group: Alabama Shakes, Eagles Of Death Metal, Major Lazer, Tame Impala, U2.

British Single:
Adele – Hello (Beggars/XL Recordings)
Calvin Harris & Disciples – How Deep Is Your Love (Sony/Columbia)
Ed Sheeran & Rudimental – Bloodstream (Warner/Asylum)
Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do (Universal/Polydor)
James Bay – Hold Back The River (Universal/Virgin EMI)
Jess Glynne – Hold My Hand (Warner/Atlantic)
Little Mix – Black Magic (Sony/Syco Music)
Olly Murs ft Demi Lovato – Up (Sony/Epic)
Philip George – Wish You Were Mine (3 Beat Productions)
Years & Years – King (Universal/Polydor)

British Album:
Adele – 25 (Beggars/XL Recordings)
Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams (Warner/Parlophone)
Florence And The Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Universal/Island)
James Bay – Chaos And The Calm (Universal/Virgin EMI)
Jamie XX – In Colour (Beggars/Young Turks Recordings)

British Video:
Adele – Hello (Beggars/XL Recordings)
Calvin Harris & Disciples – How Deep Is Your Love (Sony/Columbia)
Ed Sheeran – Photograph (Warner/Atlantic)
Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do (Universal/Polydor)
Jessie J – Flashlight (Universal/Republic)
Little Mix – Black Magic (Sony/Syco Music)
Naughty Boy feat Beyonce & Arrow Benjamin – Runnin (Lose It All) (Universal/Virgin)
One Direction – Drag Me Down (Sony/Syco Music)
Sam Smith – Writing’s On The Wall (Universal/Capitol)
Years & Years – King (Universal/Polydor)



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