Brit Awards 2011 - Nominations

I don't usually bother talking about the Brit Awards on account of the nominations being mainly commercial, mainstream, middle-of-road, Radio 1, bland-pop fair but there are a few interesting nominations for 2011.

The fantastic Laura Marling is up for best female solo artists laughingly alongside Cheryl Cole. Ellie Goulding could win this ahead of Paloma Faith but they are both strong candidates.

Mumford & Sons are again up for a breakthrough act award - they have been around for a while now but still are breaking-through which makes little sense. The band is also up for album of the year even though it came out 2 years ago.

Biffy Clyro are in the British Group category with Mumford & Sons (again) but also Take That and Gorillaz. Odd mix but the mainstream should take that one too (pun intended).

British Single is predictably a horrid mix of pop nonsense.

The best award for lack-of-awareness is International Breakthrough Act. The National!?! Good old Brits with their fingers on the world-wide pulse then. And Arcade Fire should get International Group and Album.

It's good to see great bands in the nominations but they don;t stand much chance against the mainstream flow.

The nominees in full are:

British Male Solo Artist:

• Mark Ronson
• Paul Weller
• Plan B
• Robert Plant
• Tinie Tempah

British Female Solo Artist:

• Cheryl Cole
• Ellie Goulding
• Laura Marling
• Paloma Faith
• Rumer

British Breakthrough Act:

• Ellie Goulding
• Mumford & Sons
• Rumer
• Tinie Tempah
• The XX

British Group:

• Biffy Clyro
• Gorillaz
• Mumford & Sons
• Take That
• The XX

British Single

• Alexandra Burke ft Pitbull - All Night Long
• Cheryl Cole - Parachute
• Florence & The Machine - You’ve Got The Love
• Matt Cardle - When We Collide
• Olly Murs - Please Don’t Let Me Go
• Plan B - She Said
• Scouting For Girls - This Ain’t A Love Song
• Taio Cruz - Dynamite
• Tinie Tempah - Pass Out
• The Wanted - All Time Low

MasterCard British Album of the Year

• Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
• Plan B - The Defamation of Strickland Banks
• Take That - Progress
• Tinie Tempah Disc - Overy
• The XX - XX

International Male Solo Artist

• Bruce Springsteen
• Cee Lo Green
• David Guetta
• Eminem
• Kanye West

International Female Solo Artist

• Alicia Keys
• Katy Perry
• Kylie Minogue
• Rihanna
• Robyn

International Breakthrough Act

• Bruno Mars
• Glee Cast
• Justin Bieber
• The National
• Temper Trap

International Group

• Arcade Fire
• Black Eyed Peas
• Kings of Leon
• Script
• Vampire Weekend

International Album

• Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
• Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
• Eminem - Recovery
• Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
• Kings Of Leon - Come Around Sundown

Critics’ Choice

• Jessie J (Winner)
• James Blake
• The Vaccines

British Producer

• Ethan Johns
• John Leckie
• Markus Dravs
• Mike Pela
• Stuart Price