After review of gender imbalance among winners, organisers to introduce two new categories for younger artists and London-born legends
The Victoria and Albert Museum will play host to the first awards ceremony to be held as an official music industry gala in 42 years. This is the announcement made by the Brit Awards and its organisers the BPI on Tuesday.
The ceremony, which will take place on 7 December 2022 in the iconic Victoria and Albert Museum, will take place as a side-show to an awards event, and see new categories introduced for emerging artists and musicians who came to prominence under the age of 25. The other honours will be handed out during the main gala.
The changes come after the organisers reviewed the demographics of the winners at the Brits over the past few years, finding that it was the same group that had been regularly achieving victory at each awards ceremony in the last six years. They have been searching for a way to address the predominance of female artists in the 2016 shortlist and the lack of entries from west London-born artists.
The decision to stage a separate awards ceremony came after the most recent Brits, which took place earlier this month, struggled to keep up with TV viewers. Viewership dropped by 20% compared with the 2016 ceremony. The ceremony was held at London’s O2 Arena and broadcast by ITV, which is a joint broadcasting partner with the BPI and the British Phonographic Industry.
On the event itself, the industry group has flagged changes that will result in three separate awards ceremonies each year. These are a ceremony for the biggest breakthrough artists, an accolade for an act reaching the top 40, and a Brit music mogul of the year award for someone who has steered a developing artist to a successful career.
The awards body will publish the winners on the same day as they are announced at the main event. A shortlist will be announced the following month.
The announcement comes as several major music award ceremonies look to shake up their formats as competition in the broadcasting industry heats up.
This year’s Glastonbury Festival, held in Somerset from 21 to 25 June, marked the first time in the event’s 40-year history that it had been broadcast on television without the aid of a plug in.
It was broadcast on BT Sport, and featured performances from Stormzy, the Rolling Stones, Ed Sheeran, Calvin Harris, Snow Patrol, the 1975, Noel Gallagher and Fleetwood Mac.
One of the most high-profile changes will see the Grammys seek to introduce two categories for the year’s top breakthrough artist and a breakthrough act at the 2019 ceremony. Last year’s nominees for the latter award were Eminem, Alessia Cara, Khalid, Anderson .Paak, SZA, Lorde, Macklemore and The Weeknd.