SHOCK NOMINEES SHAKE UP AWARDS

POP girl group Little Mix and grime artist Skepta surprisingly lead this year’s BRITs nominations – up for three awards each. The 2017 music awards has seen a major shake-up of the voting system after last year’s accusations of a lack of diversity. The academy added 700 new contributors to the voting panel to provide a broader reflection of British music industry opinion. And if you look at this year’s nominations, left, the revamped system really seems to have shaken things up. The BRITs’ most successful artist Robbie Williams and previous Critics Choice winners’ Jack Garrett and Tom Odell have been snubbed in the Best Male category in favour of urban artists Skepta, Kano and Michael Kiwanuka.

While over in the Best Female category established stars like Birdy, Laura Mvula and BRIT regular PJ Harvey have missed out to littleknown performers Anohni and Nao.

Other big stories include David Bowie and Leonard Cohen both up for awards posthumously.

My money would be on Bowie to win Best Male but Cohen will struggle to beat Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Drake and Bon Iver in the International category.

Bowie is also nominated for Best Album for Blackstar which was released just days before his death in January. He’s up against Best Male rivals Kano, Michael Kiwanuka and Skepta but Best Group favourites The

could come out on top. I’m delighted to reveal Craig David receives his first nomination in 11 years for Best Male.

With 12 previous nominations, he is one of the most nominated artists not to win an award in BRITs history.

And with Bowie and Skepta in his category I’m afraid it will be a case of unlucky 13.

Beyoncé and her under-rated and usually ignored sister Solange face off for International Female.

But I predict Bey’s main competition will come from Sia or Christine and The Queens.

Talking of rivalries, Zayn and One Direction also go head-to-head in British Artist Video of the Year. Little Mix are up for Best Group, Single and Video.