This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Awards Top Stories
A lot of BRITS nonsense
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 14 January 2011
So, the BRIT nominations are out for 2011, and whatever you think about the shortlists this time round, there’s surely a very strong argument that in terms of artists who combine critical acclaim with commercial success, 2010 was the year of Tinie Tempah, and so it’s fitting that he’s up for the most awards.
Mr Tempah appears on no less than four shortlists, best Male, Best Breakthrough, Best Album and Best Single. His dominance also means the urban genre, arguably the most fertile in the last eighteen months in the UK, but often not fairly represented on non-genre-specific award lists like this, leads the way. So hurrah for all of that too.
Other artists with multiple nominations include Mumford & Sons, Plan B and The xx, with three noms each, and Take That who appear on the lists twice. Again, it’s hard to deny that all of that little lot deserve some credit for their achievements in the last twelve months, and with those four acts and Tempah on the table, we have a nicely eclectic mix of artists enjoying multiple nods.
In fact if you want a criticism of this year’s BRIT noms, you’ll probably have to go with the fact they are wholly predictable. But they probably should be. Some have noted that the X-Factor machine, an important cash generator for the UK music industry, and especially Sony, only gets a look in with the one category based on record sales rather than votes by industry and media types, ie Best British Single.
But then again, while the X-Factor machine is, in some ways, awe-inspiring in itself, there’s little special about the music it pumps out. Perhaps Syco can get a proper nod next year with their most interesting signing to date, Tinie Tempah collaborator Labrinth.
The major label imprints dominate in the shortlists, as they often do, though three Beggars acts are nominated, the aforementioned The xx plus The National and Vampire Weekend, while the first signing to the relaunched Infectious label, The Temper Trap, are up for International Breakthrough.
And, of course, let’s not forget that some of newer acts, while now signed to majors, initially broke through thanks to an indie. Plus some of the international nominations are released by major imprints in the UK but indies back home, most notably Arcade Fire, signed to the excellent Merge in North America.
So well done to the independent sector, even if when I pasted the shortlists off the PDF I was tediously sent (PR people – never send press releases as PDFs, thank you) into a Word file your credits were all mysteriously deleted while the major label listings remained (it was bizarre – Adobe must really hate independent music).
In other BRITS news, the all new look BRIT gong designed by that Vivienne Westwood was revealed yesterday, and James Cordon was confirmed as host of the awards show itself (I can’t remember whether we already knew that or not).
The BRITS will be presented under the O2 tent in Greenwich on 15 Feb. With no lifetime achievement award this year, the winner of which traditionally plays out the awards show with a greatest hits set, and given that urbany dancey sounds have been so in fashion of late, I’m proposing they finale this year with another BRITS dance medley and some funky dancers strutting their collective stuff on stage (remember the 1990 medley – here?)
Anyway, here’s your full nom lists, you lucky lucky people…
British Male Solo Artist: Mark Ronson (Sony/Columbia), Paul Weller (Universal/Island), Plan B (Warner/Atlantic), Robert Plant (Universal/Decca), Tinie Tempah (EMI/Parlophone).
British Female Solo Artist: Cheryl Cole (Universal/Polydor), Ellie Goulding (Universal/Polydor), Laura Marling (EMI/Virgin), Paloma Faith (Sony/Epic), Rumer (Warner/Atlantic).
British Breakthrough Act: Ellie Goulding (Universal/Polydor), Mumford & Sons (Universal/Island), Rumer (Warner/Atlantic), Tinie Tempah (EMI/Parlophone), The XX (Beggars/Young Turks).
British Group: Biffy Clyro (Warner/14th Floor), Gorillaz (EMI/Parlophone), Mumford & Sons (Universal/Island), Take That (Universal/Polydor), The XX (Beggars/Young Turks).
British Producer: Ethan Johns, John Leckie, Markus Dravs, Mike Pela, Stuart Price.
British Single: Alexandra Burke ft Pitbull – All Night Long (Sony/Syco), Cheryl Cole – Parachute (Universal/Polydor), Florence & The Machine – You’ve Got The Love (Universal/Island), Matt Cardle – When We Collide (Sony/Syco), Olly Murs – Please Don’t Let Me Go (Sony/Syco), Plan B – She Said (Warner/Atlantic), Scouting For Girls – This Ain’t A Love Song (Sony/Epic), Taio Cruz – Dynamite (Universal/Island), Tinie Tempah – Pass Out (EMI/Parlophone), The Wanted – All Time Low (Universal/Geffen).
British Album of the Year: Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (Universal/Island), Plan B – The Defamation Of Strickland Banks (Warner/Atlantic), Take That – Progress (Universal/Polydor), Tinie Tempah – Disc-Overy (EMI/Parlophone), The XX – XX (Beggars/Young Turks).
International Male Solo Artist: Bruce Springsteen (Sony/Columbia), Cee Lo Green (Warner/Elektra), David Guetta (EMI), Eminem (Universal/Aftermath), Kanye West (Universal/Def Jam).
International Female Solo Artist: Alicia Keys (Sony/J Records), Katy Perry (EMI/Capitol), Kylie Minogue (EMI/Parlophone), Rihanna (Universal/Def Jam), Robyn (Universal/Cherrytree).
International Breakthrough Act: Bruno Mars (Warner/Elektra), Glee Cast (Sony/Columbia), Justin Bieber (Universal/Island), The National (Beggars/4AD), The Temper Trap (Infectious).
International Group: Arcade Fire (Universal/Mercury), Black Eyed Peas (Universal/Interscope), Kings Of Leon (Sony/Columbia), The Script (Sony/RCA), Vampire Weekend (Beggars/XL).
International Album: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Universal/Mercury), Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer (Warner/Elektra), Eminem – Recovery (Universal/Aftermath), Katy Perry – Teenage Dream (EMI/Capitol), Kings Of Leon – Come Around Sundown (Sony/Columbia).
Critics’ Choice: Jessie J (Universal/Island), James Blake (Universal/Polydor), The Vaccines (Sony/Columbia).
