LONDON, UK (Top40 Charts/ Dawbell PR) With less than six weeks to go until The BRIT Awards 2012 with MasterCard take place at The O2 in London, the nominations were announced this evening at a special launch event at The Savoy. It was revealed that 2012 was the year of the solo singer-songwriter, with Ed Sheeran,
Jessie J and
Adele leading the nominations.
The nominations showcase the incredibly exciting and diverse year that British music has enjoyed, featuring a list of unique, talented artists who are now all in the running for the highly coveted BRITS statue, exclusively designed for 2012 by Sir
Peter Blake. The winners will be announced at the The BRIT Awards 2012 with MasterCard, which will be held on Tuesday 21st February at The O2
Arena and will be exclusively broadcast live on ITV1. It can also now be revealed that performances on the night will come from Adele, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Florence + The Machine and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. This year's winner of the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to
Music award, Blur, will give their first UK live performance since 2009 when the original line up reformed to play a number of concerts including one of the Glastonbury festival's most memorable headline performances.
Topping the list of nominations this year is Yorkshire-born singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, who appears in four different categories including British Breakthrough Act and the prestigious MasterCard British Album of the Year. This reflects an incredible year for the young artist, who only released his debut album '+' in September. Solo artists
Jessie J and
Adele both follow with three nominations each, while Florence + The Machine, Emeli Sandé and
Coldplay are all nominated in two categories, along with international male solo artists
Bon Iver and Aloe Blacc.
Coldplay are the only group with more than one nomination.
Adele, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Florence + The Machine and PJ
Harvey are all up for the MasterCard British Album of the Year, the biggest award of the evening. Though
Ed Sheeran gets the nod for his debut album,
Coldplay have won this award three times in the past. Meanwhile, revered solo artist PJ
Harvey has been nominated eight times for a BRIT but has yet to win.
The nominations for British Female Solo Artist see
Jessie J, Florence and The Machine and
Adele go head to head, all of whom are previous winners of the BRITs Critics' Choice award, won this year by Emeli Sandé. They will be up against last year's British Female Solo Artist winner
Laura Marling and Kate Bush, who has been nominated in this category an incredible seven times but has not won it since 1987.
The nominations were officially revealed by Greg
James at a special event at The Savoy in London tonight, featuring performances by
Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sandé, winner of the Critics' Choice Award. Voting for British Single also opens today and will be voted for by listeners of Capital FM and users of iTunes along with British Group supported by BBC
Radio 2 and British Breakthrough Act with BBC
Radio 1.
Notes to Editors
The BRITs - Voting Academy **
The Academy is made up of 1,000 specially invited members from across the breadth of the UK music industry: music critics, music writers, online & student press, major & independent record companies, retailers, music TV and radio producers & presenters, music publishers, artist managers, live concert promoters, NUS representatives and DJs. Since 2011, Artists have been invited to join the Voting Academy.
Less than a quarter of the academy's membership is drawn from the recording industry and only 12% of the voting academy is drawn from major record companies.
All academy votes** are collected online, and are counted and verified by official scrutinisers ERS (Electoral Reform Services).
BRIT - British Record
Industry Trust
ITV's broadcasting business is made up of ITV1, the UK's largest commercial TV channel in terms of audience share, and the UK's leading portfolio of digital channels - ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. Annually ITV invests around £1 billion in content for its broadcast channels and its website itv.com.
About MasterCard
MasterCard (NYSE: MA) is a global payments and technology company. It operates the world's fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard's products and solutions make everyday commerce activities - such as shopping, travelling, running a business and managing finances - easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Learn more at mastercard.com or follow us on Twitter @mastercardnews
About AEG & The O2
AEG is one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world. It owns or operates some of the world's best arenas and theatres, numerous sports franchises including the Los Angeles
Kings (NHL) and LA Galaxy (MLS), and a collection of companies dedicated to producing, promoting and presenting world-class live entertainment.
In May 2005, AEG
Europe announced that it would transform the former
Millennium Dome and the surrounding area into the UK's most exciting and technically advanced music, sport and entertainment destination. It was renamed The O2 and opened in June 2007.
The centrepiece of the multi-million pound development is the 20,000 capacity indoor arena, the most popular music arena in the world. There is also a live music venue - indigO2 - with a capacity of 2,350, The O2 bubble - a state of the art exhibition space that is host to the British
Music Experience, a permanent, high-tech, interactive music museum, an 11 screen cinema complex, and a vibrant 'Entertainment District' featuring a variety of bars, restaurants and leisure facilities.
The O2 arena sold more tickets than any other arena in the world last year (breaking all previous records) - making it the most popular music venue in the world for the third year running.
Since opening The O2 has picked up many industry awards including Venue of the Year at the
Music Week Awards, Pollstar International
Arena of the Year (3 years running) and Best New Major Concert Venue, Venue of the Year at The Event Services Association and Favourite Venue at the TPI Awards.
In Zone 2 of London's Underground, The O2 is situated on the Greenwich Peninsula next to the North Greenwich station on the Jubilee Line, which provides direct access to central London in less than twenty minutes. Thames Clippers, fast-speed catamarans run a ferry service from central London to the QEII pier next to the venue every 20 minutes.
The O2 is an official venue for the 2012 Olympics hosting both the gymnastic and basketball events.
AEG employs more than 3,000 staff in over 45 operating companies worldwide. Its international head office is in Los Angeles, and its European headquarters is based in London.
About Tickets For Troops
Tickets For Troops is a simple idea. It asks lots of different organisations from music to sports to donate tickets to us which we then distribute to members of the Armed Forces and, equally important, to their families. Since it launched in 2009 over 100,000 troops have registered with the scheme at www.ticketsfortroops.org.uk and nearly 300,000 tickets have been donated - including 200 tickets to the upcoming Brit Awards, entire nights at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Opera House, and 10,000 tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games. It has a wide range of patrons including Samantha Cameron, Gary Lineker,
Joanna Lumley and Joss Stone
The BRIT (British Record
Industry Trust) Awards is organised by the BPI - the British recorded music industry association - which has over 400 record company members large and small who between them account for in excess of 90% of UK recorded music sales.
The BRIT Awards 2012 with MasterCard will be the 32nd BRIT Awards, which has raised more than £12.2 million for The BRIT
Trust charity, whose main beneficiaries are the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology www.brit.croydon.sch.uk, Nordoff-Robbins
Music Therapy www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk and other selected charities which match the mission criteria.
Over 8,000 young people have been given free education and the opportunity to enter the BRIT School since its opening in 1991 and more than 10,000 children and adults have been helped by the extraordinary music therapy work carried out by Nordoff-Robbins.
The BRITs Committee 2012
The steering group that puts the show together, is made up of:
David Joseph, Chairman (Universal Music), Jason Iley (Universal Music), Miles Leonard (EMI), Christian Tattersfield (Warners), Mike Smith (Sony Music), Ben Beardsworth (XL Recordings), Geoff Taylor (BPI) and Maggie Crowe (BRIT Awards Ltd), Adrian Carter (BRIT Awards Ltd), Mark
Fletcher (BPI), John Kaye
Cooper (ITV), Suzi Aplin (BRITs TV Exec Producer),
Craig Gledhill (BRITs TV Producer),
Stuart Bell/Richard
Dawes (DawBell PR)
ITV Plc is the UK's leading advertiser-funded, free-to-air broadcaster and employs almost 4,000 staff worldwide within its Broadcasting, ITV Studios and Online businesses.
