Bonkers Brits!

There were a few Brits nominations which raised my eyebrows on Monday night:
British Male:
Aphex Twin (Not exactly well known to the masses, or with any commercial success in 2001....or any other year!)
Craig David (Don't think he released anything in 2001. This is just a desperate bid by his record company to make up for his six nominations, no winners last year.)
British Female:
Sade (one top twenty single...and an OBE two weeks ago! But not this, please.)
British Single:
Mambo No.5 - Bob The Builder. (I'm not making this up!)
21 Seconds - So Solid Crew (I knew this was coming, but it still doesn't make it any good.)
British Album:
Born To Do It - Craig David
No Angel - Dido
(Both released in 2000.)
British Video:
Kids - Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue (Stretching the definition of 2001 even further; released on 16/10/2000, having been on Robbie's album since August 2000 and Kylie's since September.)

That lot are bad enough, but this is by far the best.........
International Male
Shaggy (Ha!)
Wyclef Jean (Ha, ha!)
Dr Dre (Ha ha ha!)
Ryan Adams (Ha ha ha ha! You can almost smell the fear of the record company execs. 2001's great white hope, hyped to death, a fair amount of critical acclaim....and almost zilch record sales. Single failed to make the top 40, even though TOTP had recorded a performance in anticipation that it would - they showed it anyway, breaking their own policy. Album has hovered around the lower reaches of the top 75, and that's all.)
Bob Dylan (Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....etc.)
Personally I think this award should be withheld this year, with all nominees given a certificate saying 'Not Worthy', but Shaggy will win it. Where's Eminem when you need a bit of controversy? On the other hand, the International Female Brit has five potential winners: Kylie, Nelly Furtado, Bjork, Alicia Keys and Anastacia.

Notice there are no nominations for Madonna (who had a year off) or Michael Jackson (who didn't). And PJ Harvey is the new Annie Lennox: it's compulsory to nominate her each year.

I printed off the noms from both dotmusic and Radio 1, but neither of them listed the usual 16th category; Best Original Soundtrack or Cast Album. I was hoping this one would have meant a Brit for the Pet Shop Boys. Has the category been dropped? I'm prepared to stake my reputation on one category: the Outstanding Contribution will be won by Sting.

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