Sam Smith admits it’s ‘a shame’ no women have been nominated for BRIT Best Artist Award

Sam Smith thinks it’s ‘a shame’ that there are no women nominated for Best Artist at the BRIT Awards.

The Unholy hitmaker, 30, was one of the first musicians to call for the ceremony to be “thoughtful”, resulting in organizers making the event the first major UK awards to abolish genre categories. .

But the star, who is non-binary and uses gender-neutral pronouns, still thinks there’s a “long way to go” after the shortlist for this year’s prestigious award only included male nominees.

Sam said there are plenty of female artists who should have made the shortlist, instead of only Harry Styles, Stormzy, George Ezra, Central Cee and Fred Again staying to compete for the award.

When asked which women should have been shortlisted, they said: ‘Cat Burns. Ana Maria. Florence Welch. There’s so much incredible female talent in the UK who should be on that list.”

They said, ‘Things are moving forward, but it’s obviously not there yet. to see that [best artist] Ready, there’s still a long way to go.’

‘It’s incredibly frustrating. ‘It seems like it should be easy to do.’

Lost: The Unholy hitmaker was one of the first musicians to call for the ceremony to be ‘thoughtful’, resulting in organizers making the event the first major UK awards to abolish genre categories (Dua Lipa pictured )

In 2021, the BRIT Awards announced that they would be removing their male and female categories, in a bid to celebrate artists “solely for their music”.

They continued: ‘[The BRITs] I just have to celebrate everyone because this isn’t just about artists getting awards.

“The awards are for kids who watch TV and think, ‘I can make music like this.’ When I was young, if I had seen more queer people at these awards, my heart would have warmed. The awards are there to inspire.’

Not Impressed: Sam said there are plenty of female artists who should have made the shortlist, instead of only Harry Styles, Stormzy, George Ezra, Central Cee and Fred Again staying to compete for the award.

Meanwhile, while Sam believes their new album ‘Gloria’ is their most authentic record to date, they insisted they were never ‘inauthentic’, just not quite as comfortable with themselves.

Sam said: ‘I’ve always been authentic. I just think asking a 24-year-old to be 100% herself in front of 20,000 people was never going to happen.’

“I showed 70 percent of who I was then and a lot of that has to do with being gay.”

Women: When asked which women should have been shortlisted, they replied: ‘Cat Burns (left). Ana Maria. Florence Welch (right). There’s so much incredible female talent in the UK who should be on that list.”

However, as I got older, I realized that there is no shame. I wasn’t being inauthentic, you just keep a few things to yourself until you’re ready.

It comes after George Ezra came under fire on Twitter last week for being nominated for the BRITs Entertainer of the Year award, while female stars were turned down.

The 29-year-old singer appeared on Lorraine and said the BRIT panel has done a “great job recognizing talent”, despite only men being nominated for main gong.

Facing the music: It comes after Geroge Ezra came under fire on Twitter last week for being nominated for the BRITs Artist of the Year award, while female stars were snubbed.

Viewers took to Twitter in fury to question the organizers’ decision not to feature a single female act and, awkwardly for George, many said they thought Dua Lipa, Raye and Florence & The Machine were worth more than him.

One wrote: ‘Are the BRITs really saying they don’t think there are any better female artists in this country than George Ezra?’ Another added: “You can’t tell me George Ezra is better than Raye or Dua or any other female artist.”

A third viewer said: “BRIT stands for Boys Receive Industry Trophies” while another wrote: “It’s an absolute disgrace that no woman is nominated for artist of the year on The Brits.” It’s even more embarrassing that it’s George Ezra.