Singer Self Esteem has joined the thousands of fans hitting out at The BRIT Awards 2023 for failing to nominate any female performers in the Artist of the Year category.
The nominations for this year's awards were met with shock from fans as the 'snub' was revealed by Radio 1 DJs Vick Hope and Jack Saunders as they announced each category on The BRIT's social media channels on Thursday night.
Harry Styles and Wet Leg were the major winners in terms of nominations, with the former One Direction singer and the British indie band picking up for nominations each, but it was the controversial Artist of the Year nominations that got everyone talking.
Fans were outraged to discover the Artist of the year category featured only male acts, with Harry, rapper Central Cee, DJ Fred again, pop singers George Ezra and and Stormzy all in with a chance of taking home the prize in a few weeks time.
Just 17.6% of artists originally shortlisted last year for Artist of the Year 2023 were women, and included Mabel, Florence and the Machine, Charli XCX, Becky Hill and Rina Sawayama - but none of the talented female stars made the final cut when the final nominations were announced on Thursday.
Mercury Award nominee Self Esteem - aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor - was not eligible to be nominated for the award this year, due to her latest critically acclaimed album not being released within the eligibility time period of 10th December 2021 to 9th December 2022.
"The fact that there isn’t a SINGLE female in this category when there have been PLENTY of amazing female artists releasing music the last year is shocking!" fumed one - demanding to know where the likes of Charlie XCX, Raye and Florence and the Machine were.
'Loving the female representation here," another sarcastically tweeted.
"NOT ONE FEMALE ARTIST BEING NOMINATED FOR ARTIST OF THE YEAR???? wtf is the brits anymore x, " raged another.
Singer Self Esteem also took to Twitter to express her frustration.
The Mercury Prize nominee, whose real name is Rebecca Lucy Taylor tweeted: "R we sure it’s not just best artist at reading and leeds award though."
The comment came in response to the Reading and Leeds Festival being slammed in previous years for a lack of female representation among its headliners.
Adele became the first star to win Artist of the Year at last year's BRIT Awards after organisers decided to scrap gender-specific honours .
The award was introduced in 2022 and combined the previous categories for British Female Solo Artist and British Male Solo Artist - as a result of the Academy's wish to eliminate the distinctions between male and female artists and replace it with new gender neutral honour.
Collecting the award in its inaugural year, Adele told the audience at The 02 Arena how she "loves being a women" as she accepted the gender neutral award on stage.
She told the star-studded crowd: "I understand why the name of this award has changed but I really love being a woman and being a female artist. I do!"
"I'm really proud of us, I really, really am," she added.
Elsewhere as the nominations for this year's BRIT Awards were announced this evening, Stormzy and The 1975 bagged three nods each for major honours as Harry and Wet Leg led the way with their four nominations respectively.
Sam Ryder - who came second when representing the UK at last year's Eurovision Song Contest - received a nomination for Best New Artist.
The Space Man singer told Vick and Jack this evening: "I’m buzzing. I feel like a golden retriever that’s won a competition. Whatever happens, to simply be recognised alongside so many amazing artists and peers is incredible."
The BRIT Awards will take place on February 11 and will broadcast live on ITV1 and ITVX - from The O2 arena.
Sam Smith, Kim Petra and Wet Leg are all confirmed to perform at the ceremony at The 02 Arena next month.
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