British singer-songwriter Raye has scored seven Brit Award nominations, making history as the most nominated artist in a single year. The 26-year old pop artist has been nominated for Album of The Year, Song of the Year (two nominations), Best Pop Act, Best R&B Act, Best New Artist and Artist of the Year.
In this last category, she is among six other female nominees within a total group of ten nominees. Last year, every nominee in the Artist of the Year category (which merged the male and female categories into one award in 2022) was male.
Reacting to her record number of nominations on the Bring On The BRITs 2024 nominations livestream, Raye said “it’s too much…my eyes fill with tears when we talk about this.”
“The only way I can describe it is as a miracle.”
Responding to a question from host Yinka Bokinni about the most “mind-blowing” moment in her career so far, Raye said, “A year and a half ago, as far as the industry was concerned, I was down and out. Never in my wildest dreams would I think that trying again would mean seven Brit nominations.”
In 2021, Raye accused her record label Polydor of withholding the release of her debut album since 2014. She was subsequently released from the contract before she went on to release the TikTok-topping Escapism as an independent artist.
Noting this is not her first Brit Award nominations, the singer said seven nominations is “a whole different thing.”
Her latest accomplishment breaks the previous record of six nominations in a single year held by Robbie Williams, Gorillaz and Craig David.
Raye will compete for this year’s Artist of the Year award alongside Little Simz, Arlo Parks, Jessie Ware, Olivia Dean, Dua Lipa, Dave, Central Cee, J Hus and Fred Again.
Female artists also dominated the list of nominees in the award for International Artist of the Year, with eight of the ten nominees being female, including Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Caroline Polachek and Kylie Minogue.
Last August, Raye released her long-awaited debut record, My 21st Century Blues, which will compete for Album of the Year at this year’s Brit Awards alongside Little Simz’s No Thank You, J Hus’ Beautiful and Brutal Yard, Young Fathers’ Heavy Heavyand and Blur’s The Ballad of Darren.
This year’s rising star prize has already been awarded to The Last Dinner Party, a London-based all-female five-piece indie rock band from London formed in 2021.
This year’s Brit Awards will take place in London on March 2, with Dua Lipa already confirmed to perform at the event.