Adele and Ed Sheeran lead Brit Awards nominations with four each after ceremony goes gender neutral
ADELE and Ed Sheeran will have to go head-to-head for Brit Awards after bosses decided to make the gongs gender-neutral and more inclusive.
The superstars are up for four awards each and have tied for the most nominations alongside Dave and Little Simz.
They've been nominated for some of the most prestigious awards of the night including, Best Album and Best British Act.
If Adele sweeps all four categories she will join Robbie Williams' record as having the most Brit Awards of any artist, with 13 in total.
Little Mix are in the running again to win Best Band but must beat fierce competition from Coldplay, D-Block Europe, Wolf Alice and London Grammar.
Swedish supergroup ABBA have made their return and are nominated for Best International band.
The last time they were nominated in the category was at the first Brit Awards in 1977 and are up against K-pop sensation BTS, fellow Eurovision winner Måneskin, indie groupThe War On Drugs and Bruno Mars' supergroup with Anderson Paak, Silk Sonic
Other international acts up for awards include, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish.
The Brit Awards have followed in the footsteps of the Grammys and MTV awards to drop the gendered categories, which those major ceremonies did last decade.
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t at the 2022 awards.
The Sun first revealed organisers were considering removing the gendered categories in 2019.
Their decision finally came after non-binary singer Sam Smith, who won in 2014, felt excluded from May’s show, saying: “Music for me has always been about unification not division.
“Let’s celebrate everybody regardless of gender, race, age, ability, sexuality, and class.�?/p>
This year's awards also saw a record breaking 18 women nominated �?the second highest number ever �?but were still greatly outnumbered by men who had 48 nominations.
It was announced there would be an Artist of the Year and International Artist of the Year at the awards show on February 8 �?with Mo Gilligan, Maya Jama and Clara Amfo, taking over hosting duties from Jack Whitehall.
A statement said the categories would “celebrate artists solely for their music and work, rather than how they choose to identify or as others may see them�?
As well as axing Best Male and Best Female prizes, 2022 organisers will add four genre-based categories.
There will also be gongs for Best Pop/Rnb, Best Dance, Best Alternative/Rock and Best Rap/Hip-Hop/Grime.
Winners of those genres will be decided by public vote on TikTok.
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