The BRIT Awards, beginning in 1977, exists to recognise and celebrate the breadth of musical talent in the UK. The awards show also serves as a platform for up-and-coming artists. Of the awards up for grabs at the 42nd annual BRIT Awards ceremony, Little Simz and Bree Runway were the only Black women shortlisted, with Simz being the only Black female winner of the night (Best New Artist). We look at why this was the case, considering issues such as the volume of Black talent to the US. We also spotlight some of the snubbed Black women artists.
BRIT Awards 2022: Little Simz Wins Best New Artist
The BRIT award nominees
The BRIT award nominees are supposed to reflect the tastes of the UK population. This year's nominees feature big-name and lesser-known British artists in mainstream pop, R&B, grime, and alternative genres. Notably, many nominees are Black British male artists, with Dave, Ghetts, and D-Block Europe among them. And, of all the nominees this year, Little Simz was the only Black woman to be shortlisted for a main award (the BRITs Rising Star Award, for which Bree Runway was nominated, is a supplementary category).
The tension between inclusivity and recognising a range of talent
In an attempt to be as inclusive as possible and to "celebrate artists solely for their music and work", the BRIT Awards scrapped most of the gender categories ahead of the 2022 edition. Also new this year are the categories of Pop/R&B Act, Rap/Grime/Hip Hop Act, Dance Act, and Alternative Rock Act. This attempt, while welcome, has inadvertently reduced the number of women — and with that, Black women — nominated for awards. Though just under half of the nominations went to acts that featured women, the figure drops down to around a third (24) when we consider female-only acts, with a large amount of these being American. Moreover, the Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act — a category we know is heavily tied to Black British music culture — only featured one female artist.
In addition, with only five nominees in most categories, the BRIT Awards are limited in celebrating a wider breadth of British talent. While the Grammy's went down a similar route in 2012 by eliminating gendered categories, the number of nominees for major categories remains more than that of the BRIT Awards. Such a limited selection means there aren't many places to recognise the range of Black female talent in the UK.
The MOBO Awards were created to fill this vacuum and shine a light on the music of Black origin with distinct categories for Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop and Grime, among others. Yet even at the 2021 MOBO Awards, the number of Black female musicians among the winners was paltry despite the higher number of Black women nominees.
So, where were all the Black women artists?
By lumping together broad genres such as 'Pop' with 'R&B', the number of chances for shortlisting under each category is significantly reduced. Coupled with the reality that Black artists are often lumped into R&B or "Urban" categories, the result is a situation where only a few visibly Black women get to feature and vie for the little available spotlight. Hence, limited categories and a low number of nominees are a recipe for tokenism. Indeed, Black British indie-pop singer-songwriter V V Brown spoke to the Guardian in 2021 on this: “There sometimes seems to be a one-in, one-out rule so rampant it can feel like a factory line of disposable Blackness.”
The volume of Black talent to the US
The likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Kaluuya and Naomi Harris, to name a few, have illustrated the greater level of opportunities and success to be had for Black artists across the pond. Naomie Harris, for instance, has featured in prominent British films such as Skyfall, but her acting career has maintained longevity thanks to roles in big-budget US films such as Collateral Beauty (2016) and Moonlight (2016).
Musicians have also followed similar trajectories, most notably being the 2000s case of Estelle, who was vocal about her struggle to gain recognition in the UK music industry. At the start of her career, she found limited opportunities for Black British artists to penetrate the R&B scene - which was, in Europe at the time, the domain of African-American artists. However, she eventually found success in the US after signing with John Legend. Following the release of the top hit "American Boy" in collaboration with Kanye West, she and West won the Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. A similar, though more reserved, instance was that of R&B duo Floetry in the late 1990s, who found greater success after moving to the US.
Talking to BBC Sounds in 2018, British Nigerian journalist Yomi Adegoke and author of Slay in Your Lane and Loud Black Girls, suggests several reasons for the lack of prominent Black female musicians in the UK. Among them is the reality that the UK music industry considers Black R&B voices as the default, meaning that they lack the novelty associated with artists such as Adele and Ed Sheeran. Therefore, the US seems to have a greater capacity for artists to develop and for there to be multiple Black women in the limelight covering a range of genres.
Little Simz
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Not a “newcomer” to the music scene by any means, Little Simz has been producing genre-bending content for over a decade, starting with her first mixtape in 2010, Stratosphere, all the way to her 4th studio album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert in September, 2021. It was 2019's GREY Area album that thrust the rapper into mainstream critical acclaim, earning her several NME Award nominations, including the win of Best Album in 2020. Little Simz continued her momentum, having a fantastic year in 2021. Her come-up has coincided with the zeitgeist of contemporary British music being grime and rap. So, unsurprisingly, she is becoming one of the leading female rappers in the UK. Some of Simz' success can be attributed to her distinctly homegrown UK sound, appealing to both the UK and worldwide audiences. Optically, she's also uniquely positioned as a female rapper with a less-sexualised aesthetic and persona, giving us both diversity in vibe and some '90s nostalgia.
In recognition of the success of Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, Simz was nominated for four BRIT Awards, Mastercard Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best Hip Hop/Rap/Grime Act, and Best New Artist. The star beat out strong contenders in the latter category — Central Cee, Griff, Joy Crookes, and Self Esteem — to win the honour, officially cementing her rightful place in the mainstream UK music industry.
But Black female musical talent certainly extends beyond Little Simz, and the UK is not short of it. Black female musicians produced stellar work in 2021. Here are some of our faves who we also think deserved BRIT Award nods.
Nao for Best Pop/ R&B Act
Nao has a celestial, alluring voice that she describes as part of her "wonky funk" sound, incorporating elements of R&B, soul, electronic music, and funk. Unfortunately, this hybridity has likely led to her being overlooked by the UK music scene with its narrow outlook on what type of music made by Black women is marketable. In a 2020 interview with MusicWeek, the star lamented this, saying, "The pool for Black women is usually really tiny. As an artist, it's like you're doing Black music, but you're having to do it in a white space."
Nevertheless, Nao found critical acclaim for the album Saturn, released in 2018, which gained nominations for a Mercury Prize and Grammy. Not unknown to the BRIT Awards, she was also shortlisted for Best British Female Solo Act in 2017. Of course, Nao would have made an excellent shortlisting choice for the Pop/R&B Act following the 2021 album release, And Then Life Was Beautiful. Despite being overlooked by the BRITs this year, Nao's career continues to move from strength to strength. With a significant North American audience, she may be the latest Black British artist to focus on making a name for themselves stateside.
Laura Mvula for Album of the Year
Soul and Jazzy-Pop queen, Laura Mvula, made a comeback with the album Pink Noise in 2021. The ten-track project featured visceral tracks such as "Safe Passage", among lighter, upbeat songs like "Got Me". Pink Noise, although receiving no nominations from the BRIT Awards, was shortlisted for the 2021 Mercury Prize's Album of the Year award, so her artwork did not completely go amiss.
Despite this year's snub, Mvula is a familiar name to the BRIT Awards. In 2013, she was shortlisted for the 2013 BRIT Critics' Choice Award (now the BRITs Rising Star Award) following the release of her debut studio album Sing to the Moon. She also received a nod in 2014 for British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo Artist. She found success in the 2013 MOBO Awards, though, taking home awards for Best Female Act and Best R&B/Soul Act. Unfortunately, Mvula's momentum in gaining mainstream recognition seems to have stalled, alluding to the apparent time constraints put on Black women in the UK music industry and the little space available for the diversity of Black female talent.
RAY BLK for Album of the Year
Dubbed by the Times as an "Inheritor to Lauryn Hill's soulful crown", RAY BLK is making a name for herself as one of the frontrunners in British neo-soul music. In 2017, she beat the likes of Anderson .Paak and Rag'n'Bone Man to claim the BBC Sound Of 2017 award, which recognises promising new talent. Boasting Stormzy, Gorillaz and Wyclef Jean among her collaborators, she has proved her staying power and versatility.
Last year, BLK released her album Access Denied, which featured bops like "Dark Skinned", "MIA", and "Over You". "Over You", produced in collaboration with Stefflon Don, is a catchy track encompassing the genres of pop and dancehall (also known as bashment), so it comes as a surprise that she was overlooked at this year's BRIT Awards and even last year's MOBOs. However, like Nao, it seems RAY BLK would be better off focusing on forging ahead in the US, as the successful track "MIA" featuring American singer Kaash Paige signifies.