Music superstar Sam Smith is speaking after being excluded from the gendered categories at this year's upcoming BRIT Awards.
The nonbinary, Grammy- and Oscar-winning singer-songwriter, whose 2020 studio album Love Goes was met with critical acclaim and is eligible for recognition at this year's ceremony, took to Instagram to release a statement after news broke that gender-neutral awards categories (which were originally planned back in 2019, according to NME) won't be implemented this year.
"The Brits have been an important part of my career," Sam wrote in their statement. "One of my earliest achievements was winning Critics Choice in 2014."
They continued:
"Music for me has always been about unification not division. I look forward to a time where awards shows can be reflective of the society we live in. Let’s celebrate everybody regardless of gender, race, age, ability, sexuality, and class."
"The BRITs love Sam," a spokesperson for the awards show said in a statement responding to Sam, going on to explain that the BRIT awards are still trying to figure out the best way to implement a gender-neautral nomination system.
"Sam won our Critics’ Choice Award (now Rising Star) in 2014 and went on to enjoy incredible international stardom, winning more BRIT Awards and nominations along the way as well as giving us some of the most memorable performances ever. Sam is an extraordinary British artist and we agree with what they have said today. The BRITs are committed to evolving the show and the gendered categories are very much under review. But any changes made to be more inclusive need to be just that — if a change unintentionally leads to less inclusion then it risks being counterproductive to diversity and equality. We need to consult more widely before changes are made to make sure we get it right."
This isn't the first controversy the BRITs have courted over the past year.
Pansexual hyperpop singer Rina Sawayama (who is best known for tracks like "Lucid," "XS," and "Cherry" and whose 2020 debut studio album SAWAYAMA received universal critical acclaim from multiple music and cultural publications) learned she wasn't eligible to be nominated for a BRIT because she doesn't hold a British passport, despite having lived in the UK for the past 26 years of her life and personally identifying as British — and calls for the BRITs to reevaluate their nominating criteria quickly followed.
Fortunately, according to a report from Yahoo! Entertainment, Sawayama was able to meet and have conversations recently with the British Phonographic Industry (the organizers of the BRITs) to push for a change of eligibility rules, and now artists who have been permanent UK residents for more than five years will now be eligible! And Sawayama herself was just officially recognized as one of three up-and-coming artists nominated for the Rising Star award at the 2021 BRITs, which scheduled to take place in May!
While Sam and Rina's stories prove that we're not quite where we need to be yet when it comes to inclusion and diversity in awards shows, hopefully, voting and awards agencies will start to take notice of how important it is and commit to actually making a change!
