The BRIT Award Nominations 2012 - What's going on...

Oh how we love the BRIT awards. Even if we hate the whole process, we love to vent our infinite frustrations on the show, lamenting that our favourite artist isn't included (the fact Nicola Roberts hasn't been nominated this year is a pop injustice of mindboggling proportions) or that a certain artist has been nominated too many times (Ed Sheeran, four times, I mean... really?).

But above all, the night itself is bloody brilliant TV viewing and a great bit of marketing. And for that we salute it.

So without further ado, here's the complete list of BRIT award nominations for 2012, who I'd like to win each category (in bold), and who I think will actually win.

British male solo artist

Ed Sheeran (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

James Blake (Polydor/Universal Music)

James Morrison (Island/Universal Music)

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (Sour Mash)
Professor Green (Virgin/EMI Music)

[Noelly G's solo album was exceedingly excellent - far better than it really had any rights to be, considering how long Oasis had been going before their disagreeable split. But the fact Noel's solo album exists made 2012 a far better place musically, because contained on it was arguably some of his best work in more than a decade, proof that he remains one of the greatest ever British songwriters. Lamentably though, Ed Sheeran will probably win this one.]

British female solo artist
Adele (XL Recordings/XL Beggars)

Florence + the Machine (Island/Universal Music)

Jessie J (Island/Lava/Universal Music)

Kate Bush (Fish People/EMI Music)

Laura Marling (Virgin/EMI Music)

[As brilliant as Adele is, for me, Jessie J is a better popstar. She courts the press and just looks 'cooler'. While her album doesn't hold a patch to Adele's, she cornered the market in urban-inflected pop singles and conquered the airwaves in the process. Of course, Adele probably will win this category, and speaking frankly, she probably deserves to as well.]

British breakthrough act
Anna Calvi (Domino Records)

Ed Sheeran (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

Emeli Sandé (Virgin/EMI Music)

Jessie J (Island/Lava/Universal Music)

The Vaccines (Columbia/Sony Music)

[I’d like to see Emeli win this just because she seems like a lovely person and her voice is absolutely gorgeous. Heaven, Daddy and Read All About It are all brilliant singles and for me, she deserves the ‘breakthrough’ nod more as Ed Sheeran and Jessie – one of which will probably win this – have already had monumental levels of success and so need the award less.

British group

Arctic Monkeys (Domino Records)

Chase & Status (Mercury/Universal Music)

Coldplay (Parlophone/EMI Music)

Elbow (Polydor/Universal Music)

Kasabian (Columbia/Sony Music)

[This absolutely has to go to Coldplay, and I reckon it will too. As lovely as Elbow’s album plus Reading & Leeds set were, it was Coldplay that absolutely owned Glastonbury. Mylo Xyloto saw the band on stellar form once again with Every Teardrop, Paradise and Charlie Brown easily ranking up there with the band’s previous greats.]

British single

Adele Someone Like You (XL Recordings/XL Beggars)

Ed Sheeran The A Team (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

Example Changed The Way You Kissed Me (Ministry Of Sound)

Jessie J Ft B.o.B. Price Tag (Island/Lava/Universal Music)

JLS ft Dev She Makes Me Wanna (Epic/Sony Music)

Military Wives/Gareth Malone Wherever You Are (Decca/Universal Music)

Olly Murs ft Rizzle Kicks Heart Skips A Beat (Epic/Sony Music)

One Direction What Makes You Beautiful (Syco Music/Sony Music)

Pixie Lott All About Tonight (Mercury/Universal Music)

The Wanted Glad You Came (Global Talent/Island/Universal Music)

[In terms of the track I enjoyed and played the most, this has to go to Example – seeing him play Changed The Way You Kissed Me live at Wembley Stadium was incredible, I’ve never seen a crowd go as wild as they did then. But realistically speaking, this is bound to go to One Direction through sheer weight of their fanbase voting.]

Mastercard British album of the year

Adele 21 (XL Recordings/Beggars)

Coldplay Mylo (Xyloto Parlophone/EMI Music)

Ed Sheeran + (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

Florence + the Machine (Ceremonials Island/Universal Music)

PJ Harvey Let England Shake (Island/Universal Music)

[This could only ever be Adele. The sales speak for themselves. And while I don’t think the album is as earth-shatteringly amazing as those sales suggest, it’s certainly still a very, very good pop LP.]

International male solo artist

Aloe Blacc (Epic/Sony Music)

Bon Iver (4AD/XL Beggars)

Bruno Mars (Atlantic Records/Warner Music)

David Guetta (Positiva/Virgin/EMI Music)

Ryan Adams (Columbia/Sony Music)

[I’m going with Ryan Adams because I don’t have a particular preference for any of the other artists and his album is beautiful too. But this’ll probably go to Bruno Mars simple because of his commercial success.]

International female solo artist

Beyoncé (Columbia/Sony Music)

Björk (One Little Indian)

Feist (Polydor/Universal Music)

Lady Gaga (Polydor/Universal Music)

Rihanna (Mercury/Universal Music)

[Rihanna all the way for this. After Adele, this has been 100% her year. While Talk That Talk felt a little by-the-numbers at times, you couldn’t escape the fact that Rihanna sure knows how to bang those hooks out.]

International group

Fleet Foxes (Bella Union)

Foo Fighters (RCA/Sony Music)

Jay-Z/Kanye West (Mercury/Universal Music)

Lady Antebellum (Capitol/EMI Music)

Maroon 5 (Polydor/Universal Music)

[Again, I feel pretty apathetic about all these acts, but for me, the Foo Fighters album was the best of the bunch. A strong return to form for them at any rate. I have a feeling this will go to Jay-Z/Kanye though.]

International breakthrough act

Aloe Blacc (Epic/Sony Music)

Bon Iver (4AD/XL Beggars)

Foster The People (Columbia/Sony Music)

Lana Del Rey (Polydor/Universal Music)

Nicki Minaj (Island/Universal Music)

[This’ll be between Nicki and Lana. Personally I see Lana more as the ‘breakthrough’ artist right now, but what Nicki has achieved in the past year is undeniable. I just wish the incredible Roman’s Revenge had been given a ‘proper’ single release and gone on to do the same things the likes of Fly and Superbass did.]

The BRIT Awards nominations launch!

It's a passing of the baton of sorts - albeit in a posh hotel down by the river. That's it, the annual glamorous BRIT Awards nomination party where those fresh and feisty up and comers have their performances sandwiched between a load of video montage packages of the nominated artists - fun for all the family basically.

This year, Greg James will be taking to the Savoy Hotel to host the show where Emeli Sande will pick up her Critics' Choice bong from last year's winner Jessie J. Can Emeli repeat Jessie's mega-success? Judging by the rapturous acclaim that greeted her debut single Heaven, the odds look promising.

Her follow-up Daddy was offered as a free download on iTunes last week and it's all kinds of amazing - gorgeous string sections, 90s-inflected beats and of course Emeli's sumptuous vocals right at the heart of it all.

Ed Sheeran will be giving a performance on the night, so there's that to look forward to as well. After the show, you'll be able to catch up on all the highlights at the BRITs official website.

And then it's on to the big show itself, which will be held at the O2 Arena on the 21st February - bring it on!

Blur - What price a BRIT Award?

The news is out: Blur are this year's proud recipients of what I've always thought stood as one of the best BRIT awards to get - the Outstanding Contribution to Music award. It's this award that you could always count on to go toward real, inarguable talent - acts that had made a genuine impact on the last few decades of pop music.

But do Blur deserve the award? Without a doubt, yes. If Oasis can win one, then Blur have every right to one too. But the real question: Is the time right for them to win it?

This morning I saw an interesting question posed to the BRIT awards official account - why not Depeche Mode to take the award? And it made me think - yes, Blur are a brilliant, era defining band, but set up against a band with a whole ten years extra of experience, recording history and no messy breakup/hiatus under their belt, do they still deserve the award as much?

To this date, Depeche Mode remain the act with the most UK top 40 singles but without a No. 1 - they forever seem to be the band on the cusp of real, true recognition. Looking over their twelve studio albums, the praise and acclaim received by them is near universal. Their impact and influence, as synth-pop pioneers, cannot be underestimated. Where would pop music today be without the likes of Personal Jesus and Enjoy The Silence?

Maybe the BRIT awards comitee thought it was too soon after fellow synth-poppers Pet Shop Boys nabbed their award, or maybe Blur were always the group in sight. We'll probably never know. But do Blur have the consistency that Depeche Mode have always maintained? Twenty-one years since the release of their first album, Leisure, what does the band leave as their legacy?

Leisure, like the band's catalogue, is patchy. There's No Other Way is brilliant, one of the defining Brit-pop tracks, but what lies beyond? Parklife and The Great Escape are genuine treasures, albums brimming with classic singles, but fastforward to the late 90s and already Blur were dimming, shooting out on their last two great singles: Tender and Coffee & TV. After that, they never recaptured any of their past glory, or charm.

I defy anyone to have not shed a tear to the beautiful string-laced refrains of The Universal at least once in their life. It's perhaps this song more than any other that stands testament to just how good Blur could be when they wanted to be. But looking at both Depeche Mode and Blur in the 21st century, Depeche still feel vital, alive, releasing music with genuine merit - Blur meanwhile seem left to trade on the successes of their past.

That said, if they kick off with Girls & Boys on that BRIT awards stage, I'll be loving it just as much as the next person...

Best girl-crush ever - Rihanna and Cheryl

In addition to Take That's amazing performance of Kidz, my other BRIT awards highlight was without a doubt all the hard-core fan-gurling going on between those pinnacles of popstar hotness; Cheryl and Rihanna.

When Cheryl took to the stage to present Rihanna with her award for Best International Female and declared RiRi 'her girl crush', it was seriously the most adorable thing ever. (Definitely helped by the fact Cheryl endearingly seemed to be perhaps a little tipsy as she professed her love).

The best was yet to come though as Rihanna tweeted: 'Can Cheryl Cole NOT be so yummy??? Just ONCE!!!'

Wow. Just imagine that image in your head now... Yup.

Team CheRi FTW we say.

BRITs highlight - Take That perform Kidz live

Going on gut feeling, Take That's brilliant performance of Kidz was one of the best moments of the night. What a way to open the show! Loved the whole future distopia theme with all the riot police and the boys dressed up as stern dictator types. It fitted the harsh stomp-stomp of the track perfectly and those swooping camera angles really gave the performance that added sense of gravitas.

When I turn on to watch the BRITs, I want to see moments like this - something epic, something amazing; something that really marks this out as THE biggest night in the British music calendar.

Genuine – Another take on the BRIT awards

I recently read an article criticising the BRIT awards for being dominated by ‘pop’ artists such as Take That, Cheryl Cole and The Wanted. The article placed these artists in direct contrast to ‘genuine musicians’ like The XX or Arcade Fire. Now, don’t get me wrong, both these two apparently ‘genuine’ artists are great – they produced two of my favourite albums of the last year – but to presume that they are in some way innately more ‘genuine’ and by association ‘better’ than pop artists is ridiculous.

What a makes a ‘proper musician’? The notion defeats itself by way of the fact that the definition can only be completed with the involvement of personal bias. There is no fact to the horribly general label, only the user’s opinion of what they personally think is ‘proper’ and ‘genuine’. Whereas, if we look at the facts, every single one of the artists nominated for a BRIT award is by fact a musician. They have released albums of music which have gone out into the shops and we have brought. Indeed, it could be argued that many of these ‘pop’ artists - who tend on the whole to sell the most records every year – are in fact the better ones. The public opinion is clearly shown by the opening of their wallets. People will buy an album if they like an artist’s music and think it is good, so by association, the artist who sells the most records could indeed be seen as the best.

Of course, things aren’t that simple – but it highlights the key point that a portion of musicians simply cannot be written off simply because of personal bias. The article in question continues in its war on pop artists, saying that the future of British music will only be secure if music becomes seen as an art form and not just a commercial asset. There are many things wrong here – firstly, all music by its very nature is an art form. Music is a creative act, just in the same way as writing and painting are. That art may manifest itself in a myriad of different genres, and not all of them may be to your taste, but they are all undoubtedly ‘art’. Think of what music is made up of; melodies, lyrics, production and so on – all have been crafted by people; artists.

Secondly, is there anything that wrong with music being a commercial asset? If music didn’t sell, then no-one would hear it at all, thus, the whole point of it would be defeated. Also, without the mega-sales of those select popular artists, the labels would potentially have no money to invest in breaking new or experimental acts. By zooming out and seeing the greater scheme of things, Britain’s musical landscape is in fact a far more harmonious place.

Lastly, the article takes issue with the BRITs not featuring enough up-and-coming acts. Well, for starters, there is in fact both ‘breakthrough’ categories and a critics’ choice award; giving ample coverage to new artists (and if you look at previous winners, they have since gone on to be massive successes). And let’s think about things; if all the BRITs were was just a platform to appraise new artists, then would anyone even pay attention? No, far better is a greater construct supported by established, well known artists that catch people’s attention – and then when they attention is caught, the subtle introduction of a select few new artists; the real cream of the crop. And at the end of the day, this leaves us with the most important thing, what people actually like.

The BRIT Award nominations & who I'd like to win...

So, the BRIT Award nominations are out! (How cool are the new winner's trophies by the way?!) Every year there's usually some obvious winners as well as those artists who are notably absent from the list. Here's the full list of nominations anyway, with the names of who I'd like to win each category in bold...

BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST
Mark Ronson
Paul Weller
Plan B (His album is one of my faves from 2010, really consistent and packed with great singles)
Robert Plant
Tinie Tempah

BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST
Cheryl Cole (Goes without saying I'd pick Cheryl. Reckon Ellie will be her biggest competition)
Ellie Goulding
Laura Marling
Paloma Faith
Rumer

BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ACT
Ellie Goulding  (One of the best female talents to come out of the UK in years)
Mumford & Sons
Rumer
Tinie Tempah
The xx

BRITISH GROUP
Biffy Clyro
Gorillaz
Mumford & Sons
Take That
The xx (Take That's The Flood is amazing but I LOVE The XX's album as a whole)

BRITISH SINGLE
Alexandra Burke ft Pitbull - All Night Long (Would love to see Chezza win this too but adore this song so much).
Cheryl Cole - Parachute
Florence & The Machine - You've Got The Love
Matt Cardle - When We Collide
Olly Murs - Please Don't Let Me Go
Plan B - She Said
Scouting for Girls - This Ain't A Love Song
Taio Cruz - Dynamite
Tinie Tempah - Pass Out
The Wanted - All Time Low

MASTERCARD BRITISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Plan B - The Defamation of Strickland Banks (Again, have to go for Plan B but reckon Tinie Tempah and The XX could be tough competition for him)
Take That - Progress
Tinie Tempah - Disc-Overy
The xx - XX

INTERNATIONAL MALE SOLO ARTIST
Bruce Springsteen
Cee Lo Green
David Guetta
Eminem  (Simply for the brilliance that is Love The Way You Lie)
Kanye West

INTERNATIONAL FEMALE SOLO ARTIST
Alicia Keys
Katy Perry
Kylie Minogue (Aphrodite is my favourite album from 2010 so I'm going for Kylie for this category. I reckon Rihanna will get it though.)
Rihanna
Robyn

INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH ACT
Bruno Mars (Not overly keen on any of these acts, so going for Bruno Mars as he's released a great couple of singles)
Glee Cast
Justin Bieber
The National
The Temper Trap

INTERNATIONAL GROUP
Arcade Fire
Black Eyed Peas
Kings of Leon
The Script
Vampire Weekend

(This is a tough one for me to decide as the Black Eyed Peas were AMAZING on tour, some great memories there. Arcade Fire's album is probably the best of the lot but I'm going for The Script as there's a couple of tracks on their new album that rank amongst some of my faves from 2010)


INTERNATIONAL ALBUM
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (See above, a truly brilliant album. Their best too, in my opinion.)
Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
Eminem - Recovery
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown