The shortlist for the BRITs Rising Star Award has been announced and the nominees include FLO, Nia Archives and Cat Burns.
With the show set to kick off on Saturday 11th February next year, the winner of the prestigious award will be announced on Thursday 8th December. The shortlist acknowledges British artists who are yet to have an Official Album Charts Top 20 or more than one Top 20 in the Official Singles Chart as of 31st October 2022.
Previous winners include Holly Humberstone, Griff, Sam Fender and Jorja Smith, so the winner will be joining impressive company.
Cat Burns makes the list after a busy year which saw her release her ‘emotionally unavailable’ EP, including the track that saw her blow up on Tiktok, ‘go’. Discussing the nomination, Cat shared: ““A BRITs Rising Star nomination was a major thing on my bucket list for me this year, so to have achieved that honestly means the world to me. I’m super grateful for the year I’ve had and am so honoured to have been chosen!”
You can read Cat’s Artist’s Guide for her EP here.
FLO have similarly had a massive year after the success of debut single, ‘Cardboard Box’, and the follow-up release of their debut EP, ‘The Lead’, over summer.
Renée, Jorja and Stella shared their thoughts on the announcement: “It’s a dream come true to receive a BRIT nomination less than a year after dropping our first single. We all grew up watching the BRITs with our mums, and have been inspired by the girl groups and powerful female artists who have performed on that stage. We’re grateful to everyone who has believed in our vision so far and can’t wait to share more music with the world. Girl groups are back and we want to pave the way for more artists to achieve their dreams. We hope that this is the first of many BRIT nominations for FLO.”
Finally, Nia Archives has also had a mammoth year which saw her lo-fi jungle sounds go large and take her across the festival circuit, as well as dropping a new EP, ‘Forbidden Feelingz’. The Leeds-born artist says: “Words won’t describe how I’m feeling about being nominated for the BRITs Rising Star. Growing up and watching it on TV, I really never thought it could happen to someone like me. I’m just so overwhelmed and happy right now.”
All three of the BRITs Rising Star nominees appear on Dork’s 2023 Hype List, which you can read in full in our new issue. Grab a copy here.
