Brit Awards 2025: 9 Biggest Snubs And Surprises From This Year's Nominations

Yahoo

02-03-2025

It's almost time for the biggest night in British music.
Yes, on Saturday night, the 2025 Brit Awards are taking place at The O2 Arena in London, with Charli XCX's looking poised to sweep the board off the back of her hit album Brat, with five nominations in total.
However, it's fair to say that there were a few curveballs when the full list of nominations was unveiled last month.
Whether it's unexpected inclusions or shock omissions, this year's shortlist has given us plenty to talk about.
Here are nine of the biggest surprises and snubs from this year's list...
International Artist Of The Year
Yes, the Brit Awards are all about homegrown talent, but we have to admit that the most glaring omission from this year's list of nominees originally hails from across the pond.
Of course, the International Artist category is especially stacked in 2025, given how many incredible US artists dominated in the last year, but we're still surprised to see the Brits not giving any love to Ariana Grande off the back of her chart-topping Eternal Sunshine.
Then again, the same weekend as the Brits, she is in the running for her first Oscar off the back of her performance in Wicked, so we're sure it's not something she's paying all that much mind to...
Best New Artist
It's been an incredible year for Ezra Collective, who are one of the most-recognised acts at the 2025 Brits with a hefty four nominations.
For those not aware, Ezra Collective is a British five-piece best known for putting a unique, contemporary spin on jazz music.
But considering how well-established the group already is – they even won the Mercury Prize back in 2023 – they weren't an act we were especially expecting to see on the Best New Artist shortlist.
Artist Of The Year
We should specify that this is a very good surprise, but a surprise all the same.
Rachel Chinouriri is an act we've been banging on about to anyone who'd listen for ages now, with her debut release What A Devastating Turn Of Events being one of our must-listen albums of the past year.
When she was overlooked at last year's Mercury Prize, we were pretty gutted, so imagine our glee when she secured not just a Best New Artist nod, but also a mention in the Artist Of The Year category, joining more established names like Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Fred again.. and Sam Fender.
British Group Of The Year
We're going to be honest, there was so much hype around Blossoms' chart-topping release Gary towards the end of last year, we were quietly convinced that they would end up on the Album Of The Year shortlist, if not just British Group.
Instead, the indie five-piece failed to pick up a single nomination for Gary, which was named after an eight-foot fiberglass gorilla that was stolen from a garden centre in Lancashire a year before the album's release.
After entering the charts at number one, Gary was one of last year's highest-selling albums when it came to physical sales, so Blossoms' absence from the Brits list this year is a curious one.
Artist Of The Year
Laura Marling has been a Brits darling in the past, famously beating stiff competition from Cheryl, Ellie Goulding and Paloma Faith in the now-defunct Best British Female category over a decade ago.
Her latest album, Patters In Repeat, was once again massively well-received from critics and praised for Laura's signature songwriting and storytelling, so we were a little perplexed at her not landing a single nomination in 2025.
Artist Of The Year
Four years after the release of her breakout single Go (and two years after it took on a new life and climbed its way to the top of the charts), Cat Burns released her debut album Early Twenties over the summer.
Early Twenties was largely praised thanks to Cat's frank and confessional songwriting, and even scored her a Mercury Prize nomination. Still, apparently this wasn't enough to translate to a Brit nomination – either in the 10-strong Artist Of The Year category or any of the more genre-specific awards.
Cat was previously nominated for three Brits back in 2023, including in the inaugural Best Pop/R&B Act category, which was later split into two separate awards.
International Artist Of The Year
Absolutely no offence to Adrianne Lenker – we mean you no disrespect. But last year was a huge one for international stars, with US talent largely dominating the UK singles chart in 2024.
So, Adrianne making the cut over some more obvious choices was definitely unexpected – great as it is to see different types of artists getting recognition at major events like the Brits.
British Group
Little Mix kicked off a fabulous trend with their seminal Best British Group win in 2022, and the two subsequent awards in this category have also both going to the female-led bands Wet Leg and Wolf Alice.
This year, The Last Dinner Party look poised to continue the trend, and that's great, but we'd love former Rising Star winners Flo to have continued the torch for more traditional girl bands off the back of their debut album last year.
It's not all bad news for Flo, though, as they are still in the running for the fan-voted Best R&B Act prize.
Song Of The Year
You're Christmas To Me might seem like an unlikely pick to sit alongside hits by Charli XCX, Dua Lipa and, indeed, The Beatles in the Brits' Song Of The Year category, but this is one surprise nomination we actually can explain.
Unlike the other categories, Best British Song is determined by sales.
So, given the push that Sam Ryder's Christmas song was given by Amazon Music (where the festive track is an exclusive, meaning you've perhaps heard it when you've asked Alexa to play Christmas music and literally nowhere else) on its release towards the end of 2023 – putting it just within the eligibility period for the Brits – that would explain how it's sneaked its way onto the shortlist.
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