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The Brit Awards have announced changes have been made to reflect the modern and diverse music scene.
2016's awards ceremony was faced with criticism as it failed to promote diversity within the industry, and now organisers have announced a major shake-up to the Voting Academy for next year's event.
In an attempt to "refresh" the system, 718 potential new voters have been invited to the academy, which should result in greater gender balance as well as an increased BAME representation.
17% of the panel will be made up of voters from BAME backgrounds, compared to the previous 15%, while votes will be split 52% male/ 48% female, after it was discovered that 70% of voters were made up of male industry experts.
Brit Awards chairman Ged Doherty promised to tackle the previous lack of diversity within the awards after this years ceremony. The awards were criticised for under-representing grime music in the nominations and artists spoke out against predominantly white nominees - with acts such as Stormzy, Lily Allen and Marina & The Diamonds speaking out against the awards choices of acts.
Doherty has now stated that he is 'proud' that action has been taken and that the awards are now " better equipped to reflect the diverse nature of Britain and British music." See the full statement below.
Ged Doherty, BPI Chairman, said: “I’m really proud that we’ve taken firm action to refresh the Academy to ensure that it keeps up with trends in music and society at large. I believe that as a result of these changes the BRITs will be better equipped to reflect the diverse nature of Britain and British music. There’s been a long-held myth that BRITs winners and nominees are decided by industry executives in a smoke-filled room, but the simple truth is that the awards are voted for each year by a 1000+ strong Voting Academy made up of experts drawn from all areas of music.”
Jason Iley, BRITs Chairman and Chairman & CEO of Sony Music UK & Ireland, said: “As the most important awards in the British music calendar we have a responsibility to be truly reflective of what is happening in music so that we can support new and emerging talent as well as recognise and celebrate mainstream commercial success. To do this it’s important we have Voting Academy members who are both knowledgeable and passionate about all types of music and who also reflect the diversity of our consumers and country.”
