Brit Award nominee Loyle Carner has spoken out about his decision to pull out of a planned appearance on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge.
Loyle is up for Best British Breakthrough Act at this year’s Brits, and along with his fellow nominees, had been booked to perform live on Radio 1 in the lead-up to the ceremony next week.
However, on Thursday morning (15 February), Loyle tweeted that he had cancelled his appearance on the Radio 1 show, as producers had refused all three of his suggestions of songs he’d like to cover.
He wrote: “Sadly I won’t be in the live lounge today. Even though I wrote [down] 3 covers… I was told none of them were ‘big enough hits’.”
Loyle also named his proposed songs as ‘FEEL.’ by Best International Male nominee Kendrick Lamar, ‘30 Hours’ by three-time Brit Award winner Kanye West and ‘The Score’ by The Fugees.
Loyle later liked a post from one fan who noted: “[Radio 1] plays the same shit all day everyday then when an artist comes in to perform live and tries something different they don’t allow him to do it.”
A Radio 1 spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “This is a special Brits Live Lounge week and we have worked very closely with the Brits Breakthrough acts on selecting a cover track by a Brit Award winning artist which is familiar to a daytime Radio 1 audience.”
We have also reached out to Loyle Carner’s representatives for further comment.
Loyle - whose debut album was nominated for the Mercury Prize last year - is up against stiff competition from Dave, Dua Lipa, J Hus and Sampha in the British Breakthrough category.
The hip-hop performer is also up for Best British Male, alongside Ed Sheeran, Liam Gallagher, Rag’n’Bone Man and Stormzy.