In 2021, the BRIT Awards scrapped the gendered split for both the best international artist and best artist awards after heeding feedback from non-binary artists like Sam Smith. The point of the change was to recognise artists for their music, and not let arbitrary and outdated understandings of gender dictate nominees. It was a landmark decision, and one that should be adopted by other prestigious awards ceremonies, if you ask me. However, rather than open the floor to more talent, in 2023 it's had the opposite effect. On January 13, a full list of nominees for the 2023 BRIT Awards on February 11 dropped, and lo and behold, only men – Stormzy, Harry Styles, Fred Again, Central Cee and (inexplicably) George Ezra – are nominated for the gender neutral artist of the year award.

For the love of god, where are the women? Where are the genderqueer artists? And it's not just the artist of the year award where their absence is deafening. Indie duo Wet Leg are the only women in the running for Album of the Year, which is an odd choice considering Florence + the Machine and Charli XCX exist.

It's not as though the people making the decisions are an insular group either, the BRIT Awards voting academy are famously a varied 1,000-wide body comprising of record labels, publishers, managers, agents, media, and previous winners and nominees. Which leads one to believe it's less of a one-person problem, and more so reflective of the state of society as it stands: patriarchal and misogynistic. It's clear, until the pendulum swings evenly of its own accord, affirmative action is needed.

There are other snubs too. With categories like R&B and Pop blended into one, there's a notable disparity between what genre of artists are included. British singer Mahalia described the nominations as “nothing short of disrespectful," per Hypebae. Meanwhile, there's a call to divide other categories like Hip-Hop/Grime/Rap, where it could be argued that the genres stand out in their own right.

Given how receptive the voting academy has been in the past, it will be interesting to see how they respond to the criticism of the 2023 BRIT Awards.

Find a complete list of the BRIT Awards 2023 nominees, below.

Image: @charli_xcx