Who watched The Brit Awards on 24th February? It was a truly magnificent show, with performances from the likes of Rihanna & Drake, Little Mix, Justin Bieber, Coldplay and many more. There were also big wins from Adele, James Bay and One Direction.
However, chairman of the Brits, Ged Doherty, has said there was an ‘elephant in the room’, as no black and ethnic minorities won awards or were even nominated in the main categories. The only non-white nominees were in the ‘International Male Solo Artist’ category and the ‘International Female Solo Artist’ category.
The hashtag #BritsSoWhite was spread across social media platforms like Twitter for instance during the show, as a lot of people were not happy at all. Another uproar that was spread on social media came a few days after the Brits, on the 28th of February was the Oscars. This ceremony also caused #OscarsSoWhite to trend worldwide.
Mr Ged Doherty said ‘Some might characterise the show as a lack of diversity among the nominees, but which, for me, was more about the lack of recognition of the emerging music that is a huge part of British youth culture.’
He also added in a letter to The Guardian that the voting academy, which is roughly made up of about 1,100 people ‘needs to be updated’ as it is ‘largely white with a bias towards older men’.
Because of this, bosses at the Brit Awards have announced that next year’s show will be much more diverse, including different ages and regions. Also, the voting academy will represent at least 15% of black and ethnic minorities nominees.
What do you think? Was the #BritsSoWhite? Let us know at @CelebMix, we’d love to know!