The BRIT Awards is an award ceremony that started in 1977, 44 years ago as of writing, in order to recognize British artists, and later international music artists. At the 2022 BRITs held on February 8 and held at the O2 Arena in London, there were several categories that represented many genres.

For the International Group category, there were five nominations, among which were Silk Sonic, The War on Drugs, BTS, Maneskin, and ABBA. Honestly, it’s shocking to see Silk Sonic being the winner rather than BTS. Over the past year, BTS has been quite popular with people, particularly the younger generation, but Silk Sonic is a legendary duo with Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, making it understandable why they won rather than BTS.

In the Rising Star Category, a category for those with high potential in their music careers, had 3 nominations: Holly Humberstone, Lola Young, and Bree Runaway. Humberstone took home the hardware, which honestly, I agree with because, recently, it seems that Humberstone has a greater future compared to the others in this category. That’s not saying that she’s better than the rest; it’s just that Holly Humberstone seems to have great odds of making it very big therefore being a rising star as just her first song had reached 65 million streams within the first year of release.

The song category had fourteen songs nominated, with the winner being “Easy on Me” by Adele. It’s quite a song, but there were some other songs that could have been up there if “Easy On Me” had not won, such as “Wellerman” by Nathan Evans. “Wellerman” was absolutely one of the most popular songs of the year, collecting nearly 100 million views in just 10 months on Youtube, but with “Easy on Me” amassing 250 million views in just 4 months on Youtube, it was clear who was the fan favorite among music lovers.

The Breakthrough Artist Category had five nominees: Little Simz, Griff, Joy Crookes, Central Cee, and Self Esteem. The winner was Little Simz, which makes sense because one of her songs was featured in the Marvel film Venom: Let There Be Carnage and on top of that one of her albums had been in the top 50 on charts across the world with the exception of 2 charts. Griff was another nominee who could have won the award because they were a BRITs 2021 rising star winner.

Then there were 20 songs nominated in the International Song category, but Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” won. Personally, I’m shocked at who was picked as the winner, as “MONTERO (Call my by your name) “ by Lil Nas X was in this category, which was a major hit song, probably even more so than ”Good 4 U”, but I suppose there had been a good reason to pick this song rather than some of the others in the category, but  “MONTERO” had stuck out to me as the popularity of the song and the amazing quality of the music were superior to some of the others in the category.

International Artist category with five artists nominated; those being Lil nas X, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, and Olivia Rodrigo. The winner, Billie Eilish, was a good pick out of the nominees, but I feel as if Lil Nas X had a good shot at being the winner, as he has been very popular as of recent, producing hit after hit (including the aforementioned “MONTERO”) though Eilish is still a decent pick for winner.

Then came the British Group category, with five nominations; Coldplay, Wolf Alice, D-Block Europe, London Grammar, and Little Mix, with the winner being Wolf Alice the selection Wolf Alice is a great British group, but Coldplay was also absolutely great, even internationally a hit band, so I feel like it needs to be mentioned.

And in the Pop/R&B Act category, there were five nominees: Ed Sheeran, Adele, Dua Lipa, Joy Crookes, and Griff. Dua Lipa was the winner. It’s another great pick, but out of those, Ed Sheeran was pretty great too, and could have won if Dua Lipa had not been nominated for the category.

For the British Album Category, there were five nominees; those being “30” by Adele, “Seventeen Going Under” by Sam Fender, “We’re All Alone In This Together” by Dave, and “Sometimes I Might be Introvert” by Little Simz. The winner was Adele. This album was amazing just simply by the quality of the music and the songs being of decent length, and it even included the song “Easy on Me,” which was the winner in the song category.

Then the Alternative/Rock Act category had five nominees, those being Sam Fender, Wolf Alice, Tom Grennan, Glass Animals, and Coldplay. The winner was Sam Fender, but I feel as if both Glass Animals and Coldplay were undervalued as both bands produced some great music in this category of music and definitely could have filled the spot as winner.

And for the final category, producers, there was only one nomination and winner, which was Inflo, who is a great producer and just overall pretty good but maybe a few other producers could have been nominated like Pharrell Williams or Max Martins.

That wraps up the 2022 BRITs nominees and winners, a very full year for music with great nominations and winners. Hopefully next year will be even better with music being released in time for the 2023 BRITs.