VERY INTERESTING: THE BRITS

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BRIT Awards 2021: 5 quirky facts about this year's ceremony

This year's BRIT Awards is shaping up to be a big one, with performances from Coldplay, Dua Lipa, The Weeknd, and Olivia Rodrigo to name a few.

The BRIT Awards 2021 takes place on Tuesday 11 May at The O2 Arena in London, broadcast on ITV and hosted for a fourth year by Jack Whitehall.

There are also quite a few surprises in this year's nominations - see the full list here - which we delve into below with 5 notable facts about the 2021 ceremony...

1. A rare change of date - but with good reason

It’s the first time in 20 years the awards haven’t place in February. In 2000, the BRITs took place on March 3. As for the last event to be held nowhere close to February, you have to go back to the beginning - the first BRITs took place in October 1977.  

The move to May this year is due to Covid restrictions, and as you might expect, this year’s event won’t quite be business as usual. The ceremony will be a "test event", permitted by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to have a larger audience to assess whether more such gatherings can take place. Fingers crossed.

2. Women lead the way in the nominations

Four women are up for this year’s Best Album award – Dua Lipa, Jessie Ware, Celeste and Arlo Parks - the highest total ever. Celeste, Dua and Arlo are also among the top nominees overall, with three each.

3. It’s a big year for UK rap

11 UK rap acts are nominated this year, led by Young T & Bugsey with three, and AJ Tracey, Headie One and J Hus, each up for two awards each. Rap from outside the UK is also well represented – Cardi B, Burna Boy, Childish Gambino, and Run The Jewels are all nominated in the international categories. 

4. New rules help new artists

As well as a wider eligibility timeframe due to the pandemic, this is the first year artists didn't have to release an album to be eligible for the best male and female categories. This has particularly helped Joel Corry who, despite not having an album, picked up three nominations including Best Male.

Another rule change is that any artist who has been a permanent UK resident for more than five years is now eligible for nomination. This year that benefitted British-Japanese artist Rina Sawayama, who was nominated for the Rising Star award.

5. If the Best Group winner was decided on chart sales, Little Mix would take it

The group’s latest album Confetti has 174,000 chart sales since its release last November. That figure is more than double their closest competitor in the list of nominees, The 1975’s Notes On A Conditional Form. Could this be Little Mix's year?

and as always have a chilled day from the Viking