Tiana Major9 and Mahalia are among the R&B stars who have spoken out (Picture: Getty Images)
The Brit Awards have come under fire for failing to nominate any R&B acts in a category that was specifically designed to include the genre in its title.
It’s another blow to the annual music awards, which has also been slammed for the lack of any female acts in the gender neutral artist of the year category, with five male artists taking each of the spots.
The latest backlash surrounds one of three new categories created last year to help diversify the pool of British talent offered a chance of bagging themselves an award.
Artists who did make the cut in the best pop/R&B category were Charli XCX, Dua Lipa and Cat Burns – all three of whom haven’t released any new original music this year – as well as Harry Styles and Sam Smith.
All artists nominated are in the pop category, which has promoted a number of the UK’s leading R&B names to speak out against the Brits.
Dua Lipa, Harry Styles and Charli XCX are among the nominees – none of whom are R&B artists (Picture: Getty Images)
Tiana Major9 took to Twitter to express her frustration (Picture: Steve Jennings/WireImage)
Collide singer Tiana Major9 wrote, ‘Are you purposely trying to antagonise R&B artists?’.
Singer-songwriter and previous Brit Award nominee Mahalia tweeted: ‘Forget putting us in this category. Give us our own!!!!!
‘How many times do we have to scream at you? @BRITs’.
Malibu Sleep singer Col3trane agreed, and asked: ‘why even bother putting rnb in the award ?’
As for the artist of the year category, men up for the award include Central Cee, Fred Again.., George Ezra, Harry Styles and Stormzy.
In response to criticism over the all-male artist of the year shortlist, a Brits spokesperson told HuffPost UK: ‘While it’s disappointing there are no nominations in the artist of the year category, we also have to recognise that 2022 saw fewer high profile women artists in cycle with major releases as was the case in 2021.
‘These trends based around the release schedule are a feature of the music industry, but if, over time, a pattern emerges, then this puts the onus on the industry to deal with this important issue – and the BPI is already carrying out a major study to identify barriers that may inhibit more women becoming successful in music, so that there can be solutions that result in meaningful change.’
The Brit Awards will take place on Saturday February 11, and will celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to the Brit Awards for a comment.
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Tiana Major9 and Mahalia aren’t happy.
