Three other 2021 Grammy winners are nominated for Brits this year. Taylor Swift, who won album of the year for Folklore, and Billie Eilish, who won two awards, including record of the year for “Everything I Wanted,” are competing for the Brit for international female solo artist. Swift won in that category six years ago. Eilish won last year. (Eilish is vying to become the first artist to win in that category two years running since Rihanna in 2011-12.)
Burna Boy, who won a Grammy for best global music album for Twice as Tall, is nominated for a Brit for international male solo artist.
If any of these artists win at the Brits, they’ll receive a uniquely designed award that is meant for sharing. The award was redesigned by Es Devlin and Yinka Ilori in what the Brits call a “collaborative double-trophy design.”
A press release notes that the award “will this year for the first time incorporate two very different and visually striking statuettes, with each winner encouraged to award the second smaller trophy on to someone else – be it family member, friend, neighbour, colleague, fellow artist, key worker, or another person important to them.”
Speaking to Helen Lamont for the Brit Awards Show Programme, Devlin noted, “Each recipient is invited to award the second trophy to someone they consider worthy. It might be recognition [for a collaborator] or it might be someone that does something entirely unrelated to music.”
Ilori adds: “The idea came from the experience of lockdown, where your neighbour you’ve lived beside for six years and never say hello to suddenly gave you flowers, foods, acts of kindness. I wanted to capture that….”
This year’s Brit Awards will take place May 11 at The O2 arena in London. The show, broadcast on ITV and ITV Hub, will be hosted by comedian and actor Jack Whitehall.
Lipa, Arlo Parks, Griff, Headie One, Olivia Rodrigo and Rag’n’Bone Man & P!nk with the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Choir are confirmed as performers.
Lipa, Parks, Celeste, Joel Corry, AJ Tracey and Young T & Bugsey are the year’s leaders with three nominations each. Bicep, Headie One, Jessie Ware and J Hus each received two nods.
