The Brit Awards ruffled some feathers after deciding to introduce a gender-neutral best artist field, only to nominate exclusively male artists just two years down the road. They’ll try to boost inclusivity at the upcoming ceremony by making a major change and expanding the best artist field to ten nominees.
When the Brits return to London this winter, the number of nominees for both British artist of the year and international artist of the year will include 10 instead of five nominees. This change is being introduced just a year after the ceremony received a lot of backlash for only nominating male acts for British artist of the year in 2023.
Dr Jo Twist, CEO of awards organizers the BPI, told BBC News these changes were a part of the Brit Awards’ annual review.
“Obviously we were disappointed that no women were nominated for artist of the year in 2023. So we reached out to people in the industry and expert groups to understand how we can improve this for this year, to make the Brits inclusive and reflective,” Twist explained.
Several more changes will be implemented before the 2024 Brit Award return to London’s O2 Arena on March 2, 2024. Five genre categories will be present at the upcoming ceremony instead of four, with R&B getting a separate category instead of being merged with pop.
