Advertisement
Music

Can the BRIT Awards honestly say George Ezra is better than every female musician in the UK?

George Ezra has been nominated as BRIT artist of the year… ahead of every woman making music. Harrison Brocklehurst has some alternatives.

“Green green grass, blue blue sky, you better throw a party on the day that I die.” Not the scrawlings of a child in primary school having a little bash at some poetry, but the chorus of last year’s irritatingly commercially successful George Ezra single. If you’ve escaped this eye roll of a track so far in your life, you’re a luckier soul than I am. I’m bringing it to your attention not just to puzzle you, but with good reason. 

With the new year comes a new Brit Awards, and the nominees for 2023 trickled out in dribs and drabs over the course of a wet and dreary Thursday. Each category felt pretty diverse in terms of genre, and a lot of tracks and records I loved got a nod. But there’s one major category that stands out like a sore, swollen, blistered thumb. The Brit Award for British Artist of the Year.

If this award seems new, it’s because — relatively speaking — it is. Two years ago, the Brits combined the awards for Best British Male Artist and Best British Female Artist into one gong. The old way didn’t factor in artists who fit neither category, such as frequent nominee Sam Smith who identifies as non-binary. The aim of this merger was to make the award more inclusive. It seems the people in charge of the 2023 nominations missed the memo. 

Your support changes lives. Find out how you can help us help more people by signing up for a subscription

The Brit Award for British Artist of the Year has nominated five men for 2023. There are no women or non-binary performers to be found. This is where I hear you open your mouth to protest and say something like “It shouldn’t be about the gender – if five men release the best overall music of the year then they should be nominated for this award.” Alright, fine. Let’s have a look at the fellas then.

Harry Styles, Stormzy, Central Cee and Fred Again. There’s room to lose one of them and have three men and two women nominated, sure, but I think a reasonable case can be made for those four to be worthy nominees. There’s one stinking bad apple in the batch, however, that does not sit right with me.

Advertisement
Advertisement

George Ezra. Two words that should strike fear in even the toughest souls. If your target market is pre-school children and their grudgingly obliging parents, well, George Ezra wins hands down every time. And it’s no doubt a big one for the record companies and the man himself. But is he in the top five best musicians in the country? Is he better than any other female artist releasing music in the UK? 

Guys, Charli XCX was right there. She released the biggest album of her career with nary a skip on it – an 80s-tinged pop masterpiece that felt boundary pushing and commercial in equal measure. If you want to keep Charli just for the category she’s nominated in (Best Pop Act), fine. 

Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter

I would rather Mabel be nominated – a singer who didn’t quite get her usual commercial success but whose second record About Last Night hit the dance pop spot when it wanted to. 

I’m aware someone like Shygirl might be so adventurous and provocative in her output that her tunes could turn the Brits board to dust with one measly stream, but there’s no denying she had a better year than He Who Must Not Be Named. 

Ezra can have his blue skies and green grass – it all sounds very chirpy. From where I’m sitting, all I can see is predictable disappointment.

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
Laura Mvula: 'I don't know if I'd be a singer without my family'
Laura Mvula recording her rendition of Paul Simon's 'I Know What I Know' for John Lewis. Image: John Lewis
Music

Laura Mvula: 'I don't know if I'd be a singer without my family'

Reverend and the Makers release Samaritans charity single: 'You don't have to be on your own at Christmas’
Jon McClure from Reverend and the Makers
Music

Reverend and the Makers release Samaritans charity single: 'You don't have to be on your own at Christmas’

New Order's Transmissions podcast digs up wild new stories of the band – and I'm mad for it
New Order in 1989
Music

New Order's Transmissions podcast digs up wild new stories of the band – and I'm mad for it

Sells like teen spirit: Nirvana stopping being a band when Kurt Cobain died – now they're a brand
Music

Sells like teen spirit: Nirvana stopping being a band when Kurt Cobain died – now they're a brand

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue