LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 29: American Express: Unstaged with Disclosure and James Corden, featuring special guest Sam Smith on September 29, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for American Express)
The Brit Awards will scrap gendered music categories for gender-neutral titles in their 2022 show.
The organizers of the awards show have decided to scrap best female solo artist, best male solo artist, best international female artist, and best international solo artist from the categories. In its place will be two new awards – artist of the year and international artist of the year.
The organizers made the announcement on the shows social media accounts and said the change was to reward artists “solely for their music and work, rather than how they choose to identify or as others may see them, as part of The Brits’ commitment to evolving the show to be as inclusive and as relevant as possible.”
Four other categories will be added to next year’s event. It will include alternative/rock act, hip hop/grime/rap act, dance act and pop/R’n’B act. The winners will be decided by a public vote. The winners of the present categories will be determined by the Brits Academy, comprising musicians, industry figures and media professionals.
In their 2020 show, The Brit’s organizers were criticized for only featuring one British woman across the mixed categories of British album, group, song and new artist.
A number of artists have called out the award show to move away from gendered categories, including multi-Brit winner Sam Smith.
Smith spoke about the issue in the 2021 ceremony and said, “I look forward to a time where awards shows can be reflective of the society we live in. Let’s celebrate everybody, regardless of gender, race, age, ability, sexuality and class.”
The Brit organizers followed up on Smith’s statement and said they were “committed to evolving the show and the gendered categories are very much under review.”
The 2022 Brit Awards will take place on February 8 and will be hosted by comedian Mo Gilligan.
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