Olivia Dean and Lola Young have cemented their breakthroughs to the front rank of British pop by topping the nominations for the 2026 Brit awards.

The singer-songwriters earned five nominations each. Dean is nominated for artist and album of the year, pop act, and has two chances at winning song of the year for Man I Need and Rein Me In, the latter thanks to a guest spot with Sam Fender.

The 26-year-old Dean already had a good measure of success from her 2023 debut album Messy, but the follow-up The Art of Loving – featuring songs about the confounding and joyous business of being in love, in a sophisticated range of styles from bossa nova to neo-soul – has been a global sensation, topping the UK charts and currently sitting at No 3 in the US. Lead single Man I Need has barely been out of the UK Top 10 since its release in August and reached No 1.

Dean is the first announced performer at the awards ceremony, held for the first time in Manchester, at the city’s Co-op Live arena on Saturday 28 February and broadcast on ITV, with Jack Whitehall hosting.

Young, 25, is up for artist of the year, breakthrough artist (renamed from best new artist) and appears in two of the genre categories, for alternative/rock and pop, reflecting her deft grasp of different styles on 2025 album I’m Only F**king Myself: a charismatic and magnificently sweary portrait of addiction, romantic frustration and more. She is also nominated for song of the year for Messy, which was released back in May 2024 but continued its commercial success right through the awards’ eligibility period: it spent four weeks at No 1 and 60 weeks on the chart in total. Both Young and Dean are up for best new artist at next month’s Grammy awards.

As well as the nod for Rein Me In with Dean, Sam Fender is nominated three more times, including for artist and album of the year, thanks to his social-realist portraiture on UK No 1 album People Watching which won the 2025 Mercury prize.

Lily Allen caps one of the most remarkable re-entries into British pop with three nominations, including artist and album of the year. After four albums which had earned nine Brit nominations between them (including a 2010 win in the now-defunct British female solo artist category), she stepped away to focus on acting and podcasting, but returned in 2025 with West End Girl: a portrait of a failing open marriage, including huge resonances with her own personal life. The ultra-candid lyrics – featuring sex toys, hook-up apps and heartbreakingly toxic relationship dynamics – ensured it became massively discussed, and a commercial hit.

Also with three nominations each are two of the brightest talents in British rap. Dave is up for artist and album of the year, after releasing the typically self-searching The Boy Who Played the Harp in October, which went to No 1, as did its single Raindance. One of Dave’s regular collaborators rises out of the underground to join him: Jim Legxacy, a rapper, singer, songwriter and producer who co-produced Dave and Central Cee’s huge Brit-nominated hit Sprinter in 2023, and returned to work with him on The Boy Who Played the Harp. He is nominated for his own work, the mixtape Black British Music (2025), earning nods in the rap, R&B and breakthrough artist categories.

Rockers Wolf Alice round out the album of the year nominations on their way to three nods overall, and dance star Fred Again, who had a major hit with Skepta and PlaqueBoyMax collaboration Victory Lap and continued his sweatily received live sets, was also nominated three times.

Also in the running for artist of the year are Jade, Little Simz, PinkPantheress and Self Esteem: one demonstration of how well represented women are in this year’s nominations. There has been consternation in previous years at how male-dominated the Brit awards could be, including as recently as 2023 when all the artist of the year nominees were men. But this year, 70% of nominees are female or non-binary, or mixed-gender groups.

That representation arguably disguises a deeper malaise in British music, however. Of the 116 albums eligible for British album of the year – those that reached the UK Top 30 – only 41 were by female acts or mixed-gender groups, and of those 41, only 25 were solely female.

In the international categories, the established likes of Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Haim are joined by breakthrough acts such as Geese and Sombr, plus the international group category’s first ever animated act: Huntr/x, the trio from Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters.

Artists smarting from a snub this year include Ed Sheeran, who released his album Play last year but was nominated only in the song of the year category, which is based on commercial performance, not votes by the Brit awards voting academy. Florence + the Machine, a 12-time nominee, wasn’t recognised this year, even in the alternative/rock category; nor were Yungblud, Mumford & Sons and Biffy Clyro, who all topped the UK album chart last year. Major stars such as Drake, the Weeknd, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Addison Rae, Lorde and Tate McRae were left out of the international categories.

Central Cee was passed over in the British artist and album categories, while UK rap’s biggest new name, EsDeeKid, was not nominated in the rap category – though he did get recognised for breakthrough artist, up against Young, Legxacy, dance producer Barry Can’t Swim and pop-R&B singer Skye Newman.

The awards are voted on by the Brits academy, made up of more than 1,200 individuals across the music industry, except the two song awards, which are voted for by the public via WhatsApp – meaning that songs with heavily invested fanbases, such as Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked as performed by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, could cause an upset.

One award has already been handed out: the critics’ choice award, renamed from the rising star award, is given to Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Alon. “In the wee town where I grew up in Scotland, it often felt like there was a limit to how high you could dare to dream,” they said. “So being part of something like this makes me feel like I’m floating far above the sky.”

Come 28 February, the ceremony’s security guards may be keeping an eye on one person in particular: Jarvis Cocker, whose band Pulp are nominated for group of the year their first nomination since their four in 1996. At that ceremony, Cocker caused a storm by bending over and presenting his clothed bottom towards the audience as a distraction from Jackson’s performance of Earth Song, resulting in Cocker being questioned by police.

At the time, Cocker called his actions “a form of protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing”. Cocker later described his own behaviour as “quite out of character” and said he struggled with the extra fame it afforded him. “That’s when it became really difficult to handle because I just couldn’t go out any more. So, yeah, life became dark.”

The Brit award nominations in full

Artist of the year
Dave
Fred Again
Jade
Lily Allen
Little Simz
Lola Young
Olivia Dean
PinkPantheress
Sam Fender
Self Esteem

Group of the year
The Last Dinner Party
Pulp
Sleep Token
Wet Leg
Wolf Alice

Album of the year
Dave – The Boy Who Played the Harp
Lily Allen – West End Girl
Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving
Sam Fender – People Watching
Wolf Alice – The Clearing

Breakthrough artist
Barry Can’t Swim
EsDeeKid
Jim Legxacy
Lola Young
Skye Newman

International artist
Bad Bunny
Chappell Roan
CMAT
Doechii
Lady Gaga
Rosalía
Sabrina Carpenter
Sombr
Taylor Swift
Tyler, the Creator

International group
Geese
Haim
Huntr/x
Tame Impala
Turnstile

Song of the year (voted by the public)
Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas – Blessings
Chrystal and Notion – The Days (Notion remix)
Cynthia Erivo ft Ariana Grande – Defying Gravity
Ed Sheeran – Azizam
Fred Again, Skepta and PlaqueBoyMax – Victory Lap
Lewis Capaldi – Survive
Lola Young – Messy
Myles Smith – Nice to Meet You
Olivia Dean – Man I Need
Raye – Where Is My Husband!
Sam Fender with Olivia Dean – Rein Me In
Skye Newman – Family Matters

International song of the year (voted by the public)
Alex Warren – Ordinary
Chappell Roan – Pink Pony Club
Disco Lines and Tinashe – No Broke Boys
Gigi Perez – Sailor Song
Gracie Abrams – That’s So True
Huntr/x – Golden
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
Rayvn Lenae – Love Me Not
Rosé and Bruno Mars – APT.
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild
Sombr – Undressed
Taylor Swift – The Fate of Ophelia

Alternative/rock act
Blood Orange
Lola Young
Sam Fender
Wet Leg
Wolf Alice

Pop act
Jade
Lily Allen
Lola Young
Olivia Dean
Raye

Hip-hop/grime/rap act
Central Cee
Dave
Jim Legxacy
Little Simz
Loyle Carner

R&B act
Jim Legxacy
Kwn
Mabel
Sasha Keable
Sault

Dance act
Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas
FKA twigs
Fred Again, Skepta, PlaqueBoyMax
PinkPantheress
Sammy Virji

Jacob Alon is the winner of the critics’ choice award. Awards for producer of the year and songwriter of the year do not have shortlists, and will be announced prior to the ceremony.