Charli xcx leads male-dominated Brit awards nominations – with first Beatles nod since 1977

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Charli xcx leads this year’s Brit awards with five nominations for her 2024-dominating record Brat – the Guardian’s album of last year. With four nominations apiece, Dua Lipa, the Last Dinner Party, Ezra Collective and Myles Smith are close on the pop star’s trail.

xcx is nominated for album, artist and song of the year – the latter for the remix of Guess featuring Billie Eilish – and in the dance and pop genre categories.

But despite xcx painting the British music industry’s annual party a violent shade of lime green, women remain underrepresented in this year’s nominations, accounting for 34.7% of the 98 slots. Male acts comprise more than half, at 53%, with mixed-gender acts and collaborations – including the Last Dinner Party – making up the remaining 12.3%.

It’s a noteworthy year for some vintage groups: the Beatles’ AI-abetted Now and Then is up for best song, the group’s first nomination since the very first Brit awards in 1977. (Prior to becoming an annual fixture in 1983, the first Brits marked Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee and 100 years since the invention of the phonograph, and honoured the preceding 25 years in music, seeing the Beatles earn three nominations.) And with three nominations for Songs of a Lost World – their first album since 2008 – the Cure score their first Brit nominations in more than 30 years in the categories for album of the year, group of the year and alt/rock act.

At the newer end of the scale, Stargazing singer Smith is this year’s Rising Star winner, tipped by the industry for major success, and is also nominated for new artist, song and pop act.

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The genre categories are assembled by the Brits voting academy and then voted for by members of the public via WhatsApp. Predictably, the category for hip-hop/grime/rap act features just one woman, Little Simz, alongside Central Cee, Dave, Ghetts and Stormzy.

London jazz act Ezra Collective may also be set for a breakthrough year. The five-piece released their third album, Dance, No One’s Watching, in September, after winning the 2023 Mercury prize for their second album. “From a youth club to the Brit awards and beyond,” they said in a statement.

Some may raise eyebrows at a group active since 2016 being up for new artist – alongside last year’s Mercury winners English Teacher, the Last Dinner Party, Myles Smith and former Brit School student Rachel Chinouriri – but the category parameters stipulate that acts must have had one Top 40 album or single in the eligibility period, but can’t have had a Top 10 album or more than one Top 10 single, nor have had prior nominations for best artist, group or album.

Despite middling reviews for her third album Radical Optimism – which spent just 19 weeks in the UK Top 100, compared to 220 for her 2020 record Future Nostalgia – Lipa is nominated for album of the year, artist of the year, song of the year (for Training Season) and pop act.

Last year’s major winner, Raye – who took home six prizes in 2024 – is up for R&B act. “I’m still processing the ridiculousness that was last year!” she said in a statement. “I’m excited to watch Charli xcx clean up this year, she just deserves it so much.”

Some nascent comebacks also feature: Sam Fender is up for artist of the year and alt/rock act, despite only having released two singles from his forthcoming third album, People Watching, due in February; and Jade, of the on-hiatus band Little Mix, is up for song of the year (for Angel of My Dreams) and pop act.

In the international categories, Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish have two nods apiece; Eilish also clocks a third nomination alongside xcx in the song category.

“Thank you so much for the nominations and the recognition of my art,” Roan said in a statement. “The UK has always shown me so much love and championed me through these past few years. It was one of the first places that Good Luck, Babe! blew up in, so this feels extra special.”

The awards for producer and songwriter of the year will be announced prior to the ceremony, which takes place on 1 March at the O2 Arena in London. Returning for the first time since 2021, Jack Whitehall reclaims hosting duties. No performers have yet been announced for the night.