Fearne Cotton said on Thursday night at the Brit Launch 2011 “The Brit awards are the greatest music event of the year”. Not to sure I would agree with that one. The nominations were announced that night for the award ceremony that happens on the 15^th of February, and there were performances from some of the nominees. One performance came from 2010′s breakthrough boy band, The Wanted, who are up for ‘British Single’ for their number 1 song ‘All Time Low’, which was the bands debut single. I like the group, as they are believable in everything I have seen from them so far. They come across as genuine to the audience I think. However after watching them Thursday night they do need to work on their stage presence and performance. All in all though I like the 1st and 2nd single, ‘Heart Vacancy’, and I believe they should be around for a while.

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I was delighted to see Plan B‘s very successful 2010 was awarded in the form of 3 awards. He’s up for ‘British Male Solo Singer’, ‘British Single’, for ‘She Said’ and ‘MasterCard British Album of The Year’ with ‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks’. If you’ve read some of my previous posts you will know I am a big fan of his so it was great to see that his work has paid off with the nominations. I will be casting my vote for Plan B to win ‘British Single’ as it is the only public vote that involves him, with the other two being ‘British Breakthrough Act’ and ‘International Breakthrough Act’. These are the only votes that are determined by the public and you can cast your votes here.

Not everyone was happy with the nominations however, the artist Example expressed his own views on the outcome via Twitter where he said “I honestly didn’t expect to be nominated for Best Male. I haven’t done enough. But ‘Kickstarts’ not being nominated for Best Song is a mistake”. He carried on in continuous tweets about how he felt, but towards the end did end with a nice word saying “And I don’t even like awards ceremony’s. I would’ve gone for the free drink and to watch Tinie win everything…”

Tinie may just walk away with 4 awards as he is up for ‘Best British Male‘, ‘Best Breakthrough Act’, ‘Best Single’ for ‘Pass Out’ and Album of The Year for ‘Disc-Overy”. Tinie born Patrick Opadi Nsubuga Okogwu is only 22 years of age so to have four nominations under his belt is some achievement. After the year he had it would be hard to see the Brit judges not giving the rapper at least one award. If I had to pick one award that I could see him walking away with it would be the ‘Best Breakthrough Act’. I admittedly am not a fan of the artist as his sound is not for me personally, but no one can deny that he had a great year. In 2010 he released 5 songs with two reaching the number 1 spot, two reaching the top 5 and the other has so far peaked in the top 20. Not only that, but his album has been certified platinum in the UK.  It’s clear to see Tinie has come along way from his days on Channel U judging by his industry friends, as when Fearne asked if he would be chilling with Rihanna backstage at the actual event, he replied “I hope so I haven’t seen her in a while.” So well done to Tinie on his four nominations and I hope he has a great night.

I’ve always had a problem with this particular awards show as I feel that a lot of the time there are many acts that are left out when they should have been included, and yet others who do not really deserve a nomination have been included. For instance I’m disappointed to see Cheryl Cole up for ‘British Female Solo Artist’ as I don’t think she deserves the nomination. She had two singles out in the year one in March and the other in October. I would like to see her release an album and singles without using the X-Factor as a platform. The exposure and promotion the X-Factor gives an artist is evident in their commercial sales and charting. You only have to look at the success it gave artists who performed on the live shows. If the singer did well without plugging herself on the show and still had a very successful year then she could warrant a place as a nominee. Have a look at the full list of nominations here.

At least next year the category of ‘British Female Solo Artist’ will be much stronger with a 2011 album from Adele and hopefully Amy Winehouse. Plus I expect 2011 to be a bigger year in the UK music scene and I hope it won’t be so heavily populated by all this dance pop sound. Adele says exactly what I feel “I love that Chipmunk and Tinchy and all that lot are doing so well but I hate that they’re having to rap over Swedish dance music – I find it really discouraging.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Still UK music artists that will save my 2011 are Adele, Jessie J, Devlin, Yasmin, Daley, Ed Sheeran to name just a few. Amy please come back, please!! Lastly check out this amazing performance by Jessie J from the launch night. I really do not need to say anything. Oh and is it just me or does any one else get goosebumps whenever she sings live ?