BRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS 2021: SOME GOOD NEWS AT LAST!
After the stream of undiversified festival line-ups, the 2021 Brit Nominations have offered a refreshing change and step in the right direction for equality in the music industry.
The Brits have received big criticism in the past few years for their lack of female and diverse acts. Recent ceremonies have included words from huge acts like Foals and The 1975 calling out the lack of women nominated during their acceptance speeches. Wolf Alice have also previously commented that genres like grime are ‘criminally overlooked’ during the year huge albums like Skepta’s ‘Konnichiwa’ were released.
This year however, four out of five acts for best album are female - the most there’s ever been - and an easy improvement from last year's best album nominations which featured zero female nominees. There has also been an improvement in terms of diversity, over half the nominees for five categories are non-white, achieving a more accurate representation of the UK’s widely diversified music scene.
Former VOCAL GIRLS podcast guests Arlo Parks and Gracey both picked up nominations with Arlo receiving 3 for Best New Artist, Album of the Year and British Female Solo Artist and Gracey for Best British Single alongside 220 Kid for their single ‘Don’t Need Love’.
This year is Parks first recognition with her debut album ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’ (which we are also huge fans of at VGC) which was released earlier this year. Dua Lipa and Celeste also received 3 nominations, each including best album alongside Jessie Ware and Lianne La Havas who are also nominated for the big prize.
There is still a lot of work to be done, like increasing the representation of people behind the scenes in management and continuing to fight for systemic change in the industry, but in what feels like relentless bad news at the moment, this sort of change is certainly a step in the right direction.
To see the full list of nominations, click here.
You can listen to VG’s CHANGE THE RECORD podcast with Arlo Parks and Gracey here.
