FEATURE:
Recognising the Importance of Women in Music
IN THIS PHOTO: Rina Sawayama/PHOTO CREDIT: Chloe Sheppard for Vanity Fair
The BRITs As An Example of How Award Shows and the Industry Need to Change
_________
THIS is the final time I will mention this…
IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé
as the 2023 BRIT Awards will take place on Saturday, 11th February. With performances from the likes Harry Styles, Wet Leg and Lewis Capaldi, it is going to be a big evening. I know people have talked about inequality at award ceremonies before, but it warrants repeating. It is not necessarily the case that every award show is culpable. Even though there were some oversights and controversial winners at the GRAMMYs recently, artists like Beyoncé triumphed. The Mercury Prize, as I have said, is more balanced than most. It is not just a BRITs issue. One of the problems this year has been that, when they dispended with gender-specific categories, the idea was for more inclusiveness and less division. A single category that included women and non-binary artists, what has happened instead is that the Artist of the Year category has all men in it. One thing about the five artists nominated is that they are all very much keyed to a narrow demographic. I think, in terms of audience, Central Cee, George Ezra, Fred Again.., Stomrzy and Harry Styles probably appeal to the BBC Radio 1 audience. Even if the sounds vary between artists, why do they limit the category to five artists?! Surely making it broader still would avoid clear sexism. I am not picking on the BRITs and shaming them! As the ceremony is on Saturday, it will reveal a problem that is evident in one of the biggest award ceremonies.
IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine/PHOTO CREDIT: Sergione Infuso/Corbis/Getty Images
The GRAMMYS showed that they are able to instil equality. In terms of eligibility, artists such as Rina Sawayama, Charli XCX, Mabel, RAYE, Florence + The Machine, Little Simz, Self Esteem, and Holly Humberstone are good choices. Definitely Rina Sawayama, Charli XCX and Florence + The Machine released far stronger work last year than Fred Again... or even Stormzy. You have to wonder what the selection criteria is! In a recent interview – which the BBC reported on - All Saints’ Shaznay Lewis questioned the all-male Artist of the Year category at this year’s BRITs:
“Singer Shaznay Lewis has said it "does not feel right that female artists have suffered" as a result of category changes at the Brit Awards.
Best male and best female have been merged into one best artist category to allow non-binary acts to compete.
However, the shortlist for this year's best artist prize is all-male.
Lewis, who won two Brits as a member of All Saints, welcomed the awards body's intentions, but said: "Progressive ideas should benefit everyone."
Writing in the Radio Times, she said: "How can that be the case if we do not acknowledge female artists, who are symbols of empowerment to millions of young aspiring women?"
The singer and songwriter described the category change as a "welcome and wonderful step" for recognising talent regardless of an artist's gender.
However, she continued: "If the Brits are meant to be accolades for all, how can we persist with a category that this year has excluded half of the population, women? I'm hoping it won't be the case in 2024."
IN THIS PHOTO: Shaznay Lewis/PHOTO CREDIT: Olivia Rose
Harry Styles, who won record of the year at Sunday's Grammys, is the favourite to win artist of the year at the Brits
Adele was the first winner of the newly-titled artist of the year category in 2022, following the release of her fourth album 30.
She said in her acceptance speech: "I understand why the name of this award has changed but I really love being a woman and being a female artist. I'm really proud of us."
This year, the best artist nominees are Fred Again, Central Cee, George Ezra, Stormzy and Harry Styles.
Female artists such as Charli XCX and Florence + The Machine missed out, although acts like Wet Leg, Nova Twins and Cat Burns are recognised in other categories.
Lewis said: "Women, predictably, have suffered as a result [of merging the categories]. It does not feel right."
She questioned why women faced being "disregarded and excluded", and asked whether it was because female artists were not seen as "equally bankable" by the music industry”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Harry Styles/PHOTO CREDIT: Rafael Pavarotti for DAZED
It is worrying that, even though there is a plethora and embarrassment of riches when it comes to tremendous women across multiple genres, there is this sexism that means they miss out. I don’t think we can call it anything else! Some might say the five male artists vying for Artist of the Year are more commercial and popular. That is not true. Whereas someone like Harry Styles deserves his place in the award shortlist, I question the other four. George Ezra is definitely popular, but in terms of his quality and worth, there are far stronger female artists. Objectively so. Artists such as Charli XCX have won far bigger reviews and are stronger as artists. The same could be said of Florence + The Machine. The Mercury-winning Little Simz is a more spectacular and daring artist than Stormzy. It seems there is no real logic or quality control. I think the argument is complex. Fewer women are signed to labels compared to men. Many high-profile female artists like Dua Lipa have not put out new music recently. That said, more than enough women who have released tremendous music in the past year have been denied! In defence of the BRITs, women are represented in other Brits categories - female duo Wet Leg have four nominations, while Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Lizzo outnumber the men on the Best International Artist shortlist. Before rounding off, the BBC recently examined the BRITs controversy. Music correspondent Mark Savage looked closer at gender imbalance in a very important BRITS category:
“Clearly my fellow voters didn't agree with all those choices. They felt George Ezra's cuddly singalongs were better than Charli XCX's scorching glitch-pop. And maybe they're right. Both artists had a number one album last year, but George's Gold Rush Kid sold about four times as many as Charli's Crash.
The problem, I think, is more complicated than voters simply being sexist.
IN THIS PHOTO: Charli XCX/PHOTO CREDIT: The New York Times
If you look at the nominations as a whole, they've picked brilliant, cutting-edge female acts in several categories. Post-punk duo Nova Twins are up for best group, jungle producer Nia Archives is a rising star nominee and Charli XCX even gets a look-in for best pop act. So it's not like voters are unaware of their music.
What the best artist shortlist reveals is a wider systemic issue. Only 20% of the artists signed to a major UK record label are female, so they're already at a disadvantage.
And, with a few notable exceptions, it still feels like labels don't know how to develop female acts once they reach a certain level. How did Mabel go from best female in 2020 to zero nominations in 2022? Her album was good, but badly promoted. No wonder she quit to work with Dua Lipa's former managers a month after it was released.
The sad fact is that voters have a very small pool of female artists to choose from, and in a year when big stars like Adele and Dua Lipa were busy on tour, they went for male acts instead. (The Brits don't regularly reveal the make-up of the voting academy but in 2017, they said 48% of the 1,200 members were women).
Hopefully, headlines about this shortlist will shake things up, but I suspect they won't. Execs will be sitting back, safe in the knowledge that next year's Brit Awards will encompass new releases from Little Simz, Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks and Flo that will just about disguise the industry's lack of female representation for another 12 months”.
Let’s hope that the attention following Saturday’s ceremony brings about more discussion. I don’t think it is good enough to say women were not included for Best New Artist because bigger artists were not touring or releasing new music. This is patently not true. Plenty of women signed to labels who released music were eligible but were cast aside. The brilliant Self Esteem and Rina Sawayama alone could have been there! In fact, you could have had all women in the category without compromising one bit – though you would have got sexist complaints and outcry, sadly! Disrespecting so many artists who make the industry what it is, let’s hope things start to change right across the board…
WITHOUT any excuses.