Artist Of The Year Nomination Filled In All Male Participants, BRIT Awards Criticized

Harry Styles (Instagram @hshq)

JAKARTA - This year's BRIT Awards faced a backlash after the English artist nomination category this year was filled by all male participants.

The nominations for the upcoming awards in February were announced last Thursday. In the UK Artist Of The Year category, Central Cee, Fred Again..., George Ezra, Harry Styles and Stormzy were all nominated.

This is the second year that the award ignores the gender category for the gender-neutral category.

However, when it was revealed that the UK Artist Of The Year category was all male, the award was criticized by fans and figures from the entire entertainment industry.

"So the British introduced this Year's Artist category as a gender-neutral substitute for the Best Male and Women Artist category but this year the five nominations are male," joked musician Tim Kalimantan.

"One step forward, three steps back," he continued.

So The Brits introduced an Artist Of The Year category as a gender neutral replacement for Best Male and Best Female Artist category - but this year all five nominees are blokes 🤔 🤷‍♂️

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) January 12, 2023

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the BRIT Awards said the lack of women in that category was "disappointing".

"We must also realize that 2022 sees fewer well-known female artists in cycles with big releases like what happened in 2021," she told HuffPost.