Showcasing the Journalism work of Daniel Rosney
An enthusiastic, motivated BJTC accredited journalism graduate, a self-starter with excellent organisational skills and proven experience in various media environments.
And the nominations are…
In an age where people check social media sites more than the morning paper it’s perhaps unsurprising that the 2012 BRIT Awards nominations were revealed on Twitter. Gone are the days of ITV2 having Fearne Cotton stand in a dark studio talking to musicians about how “utterly exciting” it all is. It’s 2012 and in the year 2012 we have a twitter user @BRIT_Awards who does a stirling job informing the network just exactly what is going on, and more importantly where they are stood.
Winning a BRIT award is what many dream of, Cheryl Cole described it as “being the cherry on the cake”, Rihanna claimed she was “the only girl in the world” and Liam Gallagher launched his into the crowd. Everyone reacts differently it appears, thankfully there’s not yet been a Kanye West moment but should that change this following his collaboration with Jay Z? We shall wait and see.
Early favourite for the British Male is Professor Green. He’s the most commercial artist of the category and has dominated the airwaves with ‘Read All About It’ featuring Emili Sandé, the woman of the moment – and coincidentally Critics Choice winner for 2012. 
Ed Sheeran has a good shot of taking the crown, following chart success with ‘The A Team’ and being best mates with One Direction will boost his chances, if not his amount of followers on Twitter. James Morrison, James Blake and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are also in the category. Should rock and roll star Noel, win on February 21st and wish to re-ignite his feud with his younger brother quoting Melanie C of the Spice Girls from 1997 should do the trick – “Liam, come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough”. Also, no throwing of trophies, microphones and insulting the host would be appreciated.
Big things are predicted for Emili Sandé in the future, three of her predecessors are nominated in British Female so the critics seem to know their stuff. Adele, Jessie J and Florence & The Machine will battle it out against Kate Bush, who last won a BRIT 25 years ago, and last years winner Laura Marling. 2011 was the year for Adele, she broke records with her album and managed to have the same success across the pond. Her ability, as James Corden put it, to be able “to describe exactly how you felt at a particular moment in your life” with songs that are timeless. She’s been the best export in terms of success that Britain has shared with the world over the past year, but as time has told, selling over 10 million albums doesn’t guarantee statues.
British Breakthrough will see Critics Choice winner Emili Sandé fight it out with Jessie J, Ed Sheeran, Anna Calvi and The Vaccines. One would assume that it should go to Jessie J or Mr Sheeran but The Vaccines could have a shot. They’ve recently toured the UK with previous winners Arctic Monkeys and they could add the ‘rock and roll’ vibe to what was missing from last year’s ceremony. Releasing ‘Domino’ now was a smart move for Jessie J, it could gain her extra votes and in terms of commercial success she’s sold over a million albums in 2011.
What surprised most is the British Group category. The days of one when pop dominated the ceremony, this year there is an absence of One Direction, JLS, The Saturdays and instead we have Arctic Monkeys, Chase & Status, Coldplay, Elbow and Kasabian. One would be foolish if they didn’t think Coldplay were trounce this category. They’re quite possibly the biggest band in the world and it is rumoured, or perhaps cryptically confirmed, that Coldplay and Rihanna will perform together at the 02 ceremony next month.
It’s usually difficult to pick the song of the year, British Single is based on the Top 10 single sales of the year and the nominees are:
- Adele; Someone Like You
- Ed Sheeran; The A Team
- Example; Changed The Way You Kissed Me
- Jessie J ft BOB; Price Tag
- JLS ft Dev; She Makes Me Wanna
- Military Wives & Gareth Malone; Wherever You Are
- Olly Murs ft Rizzle Kicks; My Heart Skips A Beat
- One Direction; What Makes You Beautiful
- Pixie Lott; All About Tonight
- The Wanted; Glad You Came
As nice and charitable of the British public to make ‘Wherever You Are’ the fastest selling song of the year and triumphing over Little Mix for Christmas number one, this is not a BRIT award. It was an achievement but it wasn’t the song of the year, it was a song that came in the last few weeks of the year. This award should go to artist who’s song has stood out the most, this rules Pixie Lott out because I’ve just had to remind myself what it sounds like. No, the artist who should win this award is Adele. 
She should win this award because not only is she Adele, and Adele should win all awards that she is nominated for, but it would be nice to see a ‘full circle’ event take place at the BRIT’s. ‘Somone Like You’ was, at first, an album track and if people hadn’t have taken to her now legendary peformance from last year then she wouldn’t necessarily have broken all those records that she has broken. No matter where you went in 2011 you couldn’t get away from this song, it wasn’t a song that started to grate like the ‘Crazy Frog’ or ‘Macarena’, it’s a simple song with a simple love story that is timeless. And for that, someone should present Adele with an award for releasing the best song of 2011 and possibly the past decade.
Every awards show needs a sponser, it has something to do with getting a small fortune in revenue and for the BRIT’s it is a credit card so they have given said credit card their own category. Mastercard British Album is perhaps the award that the artists most want. It celebrates their entire work, not just one song, not just for being them. It celebrates their music as a whole and that’s exactly what the BRIT awards should be about. There’s no clear winner between Adele; 21, Ed Sheeran; +, Coldplay; Mylo Xyloto, Florence and The Machine; Ceremonials & PJ Harvey; Let England Strike. Again, Adele deserves this award. She’s broken records & with her sophomore album and been the first artist to still be breathing have 2 songs of one album in the Top 5. People know this album. It’s been number 1 for more weeks than the X factor is on for, and that is a lot.
Time to head over to the foreigners now and we have Aloe Blacc, Bruno Mars, Bon Iver, Ryan Adams and David Guetta up for International Male and I would like to ask where is Michael Bublé’s nomination? David Guetta seems to be every R&B singers best mate and has featured on more tracks this year than Timbaland did in 2006. However, it’s Bruno Mars who has created the most excitement. He’s the opposite of Adele. She’s post break-up, he’s break-up. He’s still in the honeymoon stage and he’s not afraid of sharing it with the world. He sings songs that every girl wants to hear ‘Just The Way You Are’ and songs that boys are too embarassed to admit ‘Our First Time’. It’s a shame that he’s not performing on the night, his X Factor performance really was superstar showmanship. Good luck Marcus Collins.
The International Female is a little bit more tricky to decipher a winner, Beyoncé, Rihanna & Lady Gaga all have a stronger fanbase than Feist and Bjork which would affect the voting. Lady Gaga has her ‘little monsters’ on Twitter and they’ll no doubt hatch some sort of contract that gets every person “no matter black, white or beige, chola or orient made” voting for the Mother Monster. Rihanna won the award last year and it’s been confirmed that she’s performing at the ceremony so it would work her going because it’s no secret that it’s annoying that when you award someone something and they can’t be bothered to turn up and accept it, it’s all very rude. Oh and Beyoncé was the first female ever to headline Glastonbury, so she could win especially because she’s had a baby (the mothers vote) and has released possibly every single song from her album as a single. If she was to win, it would be nice to follow suit in just saying the title of your song like Rihanna did last year, only this time it would work “Who Run the world? Girls” and bow and leave.
Who would have thought that one day Jay-z and Kanye West would be classed as a group and feature in the International Group category. They’re up against Foo Fighters, Maroon 5, Fleet Foxes and Lady Antebellum. It would be interesting to see who Jay-z thanks in his acceptance speech, last time he won he thanked the Spice Girls for influencing him. However, Foo Fighters fans will be more inclined to care about awards and the type and what with the FF’s featuring in iTunes ’12 days of Christmas’ a whole lot of people know at least 1 song now and will probably think that they’re their biggest fans.
The final nominations to be announced were International Breakthrough which featured Nicki Minaj who’s album actually came out in 2010 but you know how music people like to forget things/ run out of people to nominate. The ‘Superbass’ singer will have a tough battle taking on Lana Del Ray who is pretty much the international version of Emili Sandé. Aloe Blacc hasn’t done much since he was begging for some wonga, Bon Iver and Foster the People could both be the underdogs though.
To find out who actually wins the ceremony is on February 21st on ITV or you can follow updates on Twitter.
