Olivia Dean and Lola Young dominate Brit Award nominations

Olivia Dean and Lola Young, two of 2025’s biggest breakout stars, dominate the nominations for this year’s Brit Awards, with five each.

Both are on the shortlist for artist of the year, alongside former Brit-winners such as Lily Allen, Dave and Little Simz.

Sam Fender follows his Mercury Prize win with four nominations, including album of the year and best single for his duet with Dean, Rein Me In.

And reunited indie band Pulp receive their first nomination since 1996 – the year of Jarvis Cocker’s infamous stage invasion during Michael Jackson’s performance of Earth Song.

Pulp were up for multiple awards at that year’s ceremony, and had performed their hit single Sorted for Es & Wizz, when Cocker took umbrage at Jackson’s overblown staging, in which the singer appeared to be portraying himself as a messianic figure, protecting thousands of children.

In protest, Cocker jumped on stage, wiggled his bottom at the cameras, made a strange wafting gesture with his hands and made a hasty exit, pursued by Jackson’s security team.

Cocker was later arrested and accused of assaulting the children on the stage. No charges were brought, but the incident made headlines all over the world.

“For a while, I thought that was really the only thing I was going to ever be remembered for,” the singer tells the BBC.

“It put me into a kind of recognisability bracket that I could never have imagined. I’d always wanted to be famous from being a young kid. I got it, and then I regretted it.

“So the fact that we have been nominated [again] for some music that we’ve made, I feel like that’s laid that to rest. So I’m very I’m very, very happy.”

Pulp are up for best group, recognising the success of More, their first album in 25 years.

It’s one of the year’s most hotly-contested categories – with other nominees including Wolf Alice, The Last Dinner Party, Wet Leg and the mysteriously masked rock band Sleep Token.

Olivia Dean is the likely front-runner for best artist and best album, after the chart-topping success of her sumptuously singable soul album, The Art of Loving.

“It feels crazy to be nominated for five Brit Awards,” said the star, who’ll also perform at the Brits ceremony. “Just even one would be crazy.”

“Having been at the Brit school and now having this full-circle moment 10 years later is going to feel very emotional.”

But the best album category will be hotly contested, after a bountiful year for British music.

Dean is pitted against Lily Allen’s vituperative break-up album West End Girl, Wolf Alice’s soft rock detour on The Clearing, and Dave’s pensive The Boy Who Played The Harp.

And there’s also Sam Fender’s fourth album, People Watching, to consider.

An incisive, political record about working class deprivation, its stadium-filling anthems made it the best-selling new release by a British artist last year.

If he wins, the North Shields singer will be only the third person to collect best album at both the Brits and the Mercury Prize – joining Arctic Monkeys and Dave.

One of the biggest question marks over the ceremony, which takes place in Manchester next month, will be over Lola Young.

The London-born singer is up for best artist, best breakthrough, best pop act, best alternative act and song of the year, for Messy, after her brash, confessional mix of pop and punk made her one of 2025’s most-streamed acts.

However, the 25-year-old has taken a break from her career after collapsing on stage last September, to focus on her mental and physical health.

Young recently announced her first show of 2026 – at the SXSW festival in Texas this March – but it’s not yet confirmed whether she’ll attend the Brits.

One artist who will be there is Jacob Alon – who has already been announced as the winner of the Critics Choice Award.

The Scottish singer, who has been compared to Nick Drake, said they never expected their delicate, acoustic songs to be in contention for a prize that’s previously gone to Adele, Rag ‘N’ Bone Man and Myles Smith.

“It feels like I’m getting away with something that I shouldn’t be getting away with,” the singer told BBC Radio 1.

The best international artist category belatedly reflects the rise of Latin music, with Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny and Spanish iconoclast Rosalía receiving the genre’s first ever Brit nominations.

The trailblazers are up against established US acts like Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpener; while Ireland is represented by country-pop star CMAT – whose revealing outfit made headlines at the 2024 Brit Awards.

Another sign of shifting tastes comes in the shortlist for best international song, where K-pop makes its Brit Awards debut, via Rosé and Bruno Mars’s smash hit APT, and Huntr/x’s Golden, from the Netflix animation K-Pop Demon Hunters.

The awards will be handed out on 28 February at Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena, marking the Brits’ first ceremony outside London since its inception 1977.

Comedian Jack Whitehall will return to present the show for the sixth time.

“It feels like a real full circle moment returning to host this historic night at the Co-op Live, a venue that is only a stone’s throw away from the comedy club I did my first 10 minute set in all those years ago,” he said via press release.

“Hopefully I get a few more laughs than I did that night. I cannot wait.”