The Brits are said to be “reviewing” the way they distribute their awards, following reports that they’re ditching gendered categories in future ceremonies.
Over the weekend, the Sunday Times reported that organisers were planning to abolish the Best Male and Best Female categories from 2021 onwards, in what they claimed was the organisers’ way of “accommodating musicians who define themselves as non-binary”.
While a rep for the awards has since told BBC News these reports were based on rumour, they did say that changes were being planned to the way that awards would be given out after next year’s show.
And despite not actually being a musician, and last attending the Brit Awards a decade ago – not to mention the fact that international music awards like the Grammys and VMAs have already ditched gendered categories – breakfast TV presenter Piers Morgan is predictably up in arms about the whole thing.
“I’ll tell you what will happen, it’ll be like women’s sport decimating,” he moaned during Monday’s Good Morning Britain.
“I suspect what will happen is male performers will end up winning all of the awards than the women. The whole point of having the gender categories is to make it fair and equal, now we’re going the other way and that apparently is progress.
“I think it’s a load of nonsense.”
He also made some rather unfair comments linking the Brits’ rumoured plans to singer Sam Smith, who came out as non-binary earlier this year, and more recently said they are now asking people to refer to them with non-gendered pronouns.
Sam previously refused to rise to Piers’ bait when he made comments about them on GMB last week, suggesting their decision to come out was for “publicity” and part of a “trend or a fad or a craze”.
Piers also repeatedly referred to Sam as “he”, despite the singer’s request that this pronoun no longer be used for them.
Sam has been nominated for 11 Brits in total, winning three, including the coveted Critics’ Choice award. They’ve also performed at the ceremony for the last two years in a row.
While gendered categories are slowly being fazed out of music awards, they’re still fairly prominent in the acting world, including at the Golden Globes, Emmys and Academy Awards.
After winning her first Oscar earlier this year, Lady Gaga said she’d like to see Best Actor and Best Actress categories ditched from future ceremonies, allowing the awards show to be more inclusive.