When the organisers of the Brit Awards decided to collapse their best male and best female awards into one gender-neutral prize last year, they probably didn’t expect a one-sided competition so soon.
On Sunday night, the nominations for Artist of the Year had no women. Harry Styles took home the prize, though he made an effort to broadcast his awareness of this fact, dedicating his win to five female artists who were not nominated.
“I’m really really grateful for this, and I’m very aware of my privilege up here tonight,” he said, “so this award is for Rina, Charli, Florence, Mabel and Becky,” referring to Rina Sawayama, Charli XCX, Florence Welch and Mabel and Becky Hill.
In an interview with a BBC reporter after the show, Charli XCX commented that female musicians were “doing everything right.”
“I don’t think it’s our fault,” she said. “I think it might be theirs.”
In his speech, Styles, 29, also thanked his family, his parents and his former bandmates of One Direction: “I wanna thank Niall, Louis, Liam and Zayn because I wouldn’t be here without you either.”
Styles took home three other major awards on Sunday night, including Best Album (for “Harry’s House”), Best Pop/R&B Act and Song of the Year for “As it Was”.
Accepting the award for Best New Artist, Rhian Teasdale, 29, who won with her band, Wet Leg, made a point of addressing the gender imbalance as a musician, saying: “This is so scary because being on the telly can be such a boys’ club thing… I want to thank all of the women who worked on the whole production… it was a team of women, I want to shout them out.”
Meanwhile, Beyoncé took home the two international awards — Best International Artist and International Song of the Year.
Some critics were focused on the lack of women nominated for the night’s biggest award, revealing the challenges of erasing gendered awards.
This year’s Best Artist nominees accompanying Styles were all men: rappers Stormzy and Central Cee, dance act Fred Again, and singer George Ezra.
To be eligible for a Best Artist nomination, acts must have released a Top 40 album or two Top 20 singles in the year leading up to the awards. This year, just twelve female acts qualified for this award, while 58 men and one non-binary act qualified.