Stormzy has been added to the line-up for this year’s Brit Awards, organisers have announced.
The British grime star, who is up for three gongs at the ceremony, joins previously announced stars including Harry Styles, Lizzo, Sam Smith and Kim Petras, and Wet Leg.
Following his three previous Brits wins, Stormzyis this year up for artist of the year, best album, and best hip-hop/grime/rap act.
Image: Stormzy’s performance on stage at the awards in 2020. Pic: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
The announcement of Stormzy’s performance this year follows controversy around the nominations, with an all-male best artist of the year list leading to questions being raised about the newly introduced gender-neutral categories.
Stormzy is up for the award alongside Styles, George Ezra, Central Cee and Fred Again.
Defending the nomination choices, the awards said that while the lack of female nominees was “disappointing”, it was down to 2022 seeing “fewer high-profile women artists in cycle with major releases” than in 2021.
Why were the male and female artist categories scrapped?
Image: Adele was named artist of the year in 2022, the first year of the new award
Organisers reportedly plan to evaluate their decision to adopt gender-neutral prizes as part of their annual review after the upcoming ceremony, which takes place on a Saturday for the first time this year, on 11 February.
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The Brits announced that male and female award categories would be scrapped ahead of the 2022 ceremony, going gender-neutral in an attempt to make the awards more inclusive.
Picking up the best artist award, the star told the crowd that while she understood why the gendered prizes had been dropped, she loved being a female artist and wanted to celebrate women. “I am really proud of us,” she said.
Stormzy last performed at the Brits in 2020, when he also picked up the award for best male artist, before the categories were changed.
Image: Lizzo, pictured at the Brits in 2020, is also among the performers and nominees this year. Pic: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
With only four nominations out of a possible 25 in mixed categories going to women that year, he paid tribute to the women in his team as he collected his award.
“To be the best male, I have got the most incredible females in my team,” he said. “You lot are the greatest, the best male is nothing without the best females. I love you guys.”
Styles and Isle of Wight indie rock duo Wet Leg lead this year’s Brit Awards race, with four nods each – coming after both were nominated for the 2022 Mercury Prize.
Cat Burns, Fred Again and The 1975, along with Stormzy, are all in the running for three awards, while Central Cee, George Ezra, Arctic Monkeys, Nova Twins, Aitch, Dave, Eliza Rose, Beyonce, Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith all have two nods each.
Burns, David Guetta, Becky Hill and Ella Henderson are also due to perform.
A second man has been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent after an incident at a London nightclub that allegedly involved US singer Chris Brown.
The Metropolitan Police said Omololu Akinlolu, 38, will appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
Better known by his stage name HoodyBaby, the American rapper has been charged in connection with an alleged assault at the Tape nightclub in central London in February 2023.
Brown, 36, was charged on Thursday with grievous bodily harm with intent and was remanded in custody by judge in Manchester until 13 June.
He is accused of attacking music producer Abraham Diaw with a bottle during the incident in February.
During a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Brown watched intently as brief details of the case against him were outlined by prosecutor Hannah Nicholls.
She accused Brown of committing “an unprovoked attack with a weapon in a nightclub full of people”.
Brown spoke to confirm his name and date of birth, but did not enter a plea.
He will appear for a plea and trial preparation hearing in London on 13 June.
Brown – known for hits such as “Loyal”, “Run It” and “Under the Influence” – was arrested at a hotel in Manchester in the early hours of Thursday by detectives from the Metropolitan Police.
The Grammy Award-winning singer was due to tour the UK in June and July, with dates in Manchester, Cardiff, London, Glasgow and Birmingham.
R&B star Cassie Ventura told Sean “Diddy” Combs “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child”, after he allegedly beat her outside a lift at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016, a New York court has heard.
Footage of Combs appearing to drag and kick the R&B star in a corridor was initially released by CNN in May 2024. Combs subsequently apologised for his actions.
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CCTV footage shows Diddy ‘attacking’ Cassie in hotel
The footage of the incident, which Cassie says took place after she left a “freak off” sex session, has since been widely shared and has been shown to the jury in court as evidence for the prosecution.
Combs, 55, faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He denies the allegations against him.
Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, alleges she was physically abused and degraded for years by the powerful hip-hop star and music executive, accusing him of violence, coercion, blackmail and rape.
The 38-year-old, who is the star witness for the prosecution, faced a fourth day on the stand, with the hip-hop mogul’s defence lawyers concluding their two-day cross-examination.
Heavily pregnant, she is expecting her third child in just a few weeks.
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Prosecutors say Combs exploited and used his network of employees to facilitate illegal activities, while defence lawyers have been attempting to show jurors she consented to their highly charged “swingers lifestyle”.
The court also heard further details of Cassie’s allegation of rape against Combs, information around her stay at a trauma and addiction centre in Arizona and further messages appearing to show her enthusiasm for freak offs.
Image: Sean Combs and Cassie in 2017. Pic: zz/XPX/STAR MAX/IPx 2017/AP
Cassie was asked about singer Chris Brown – who she denied dancing with – and tells the court Combs had form for taking her belongings, including her phone, car and watch, when he was angry with her.
An audio recording was also played to the court, appearing to show Cassie threatening a man she claimed to have a video of her at a freak off on his phone, screaming: “I will f*** you up and it won’t be my hand”.
It was not clear as to whether such a video ever existed.
Cassie was also asked about her use of drugs, and said she had struggled with opioid addiction since 2022.
She described a 45-day stay at a rehabilitation centre in Arizona in 2023, where she underwent EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) to help resolve trauma.
The centre specialises in treating “sex and intimacy issues”, but Cassie confirmed she was treated only for trauma.
The court also heard about Cassie’s allegation of rape against Combs in August or September 2018, by which time she says they had split up.
The pair were together, on and off, for about 11 years from 2007 to 2018.
Image: A court sketch of Combs and Cassie. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
‘I have love for the past, what it was’
Describing Combs taking her for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Malibu, she says he raped her after driving her home, after “acting strangely” during the meal.
When asked if she believed his behaviour was due to his “bipolar disorder”, Cassie answered “yes”.
The jury was then shown a text message which included a heart emoji, sent by Cassie to Combs the following day.
When asked if she still had love for him, she said: “I have love for the past, what it was.”
Cassie confirmed she saw Combs the following month, when she said she had consensual sex with him, during which her now-husband, personal trainer Alex Fine, attempted to FaceTime her.
She said she didn’t tell Fine she had been raped by Combs at the time, but that he “punched a wall” when she later told him.
Combs paid close attention to Cassie’s cross-examination, leaning in to read transcripts on the monitor in front of him and passing down notes to his lawyer. Cassie did not look at him throughout the trial.
Image: Cassie’s husband, Alex Fine (left), outside court. Pic: Reuters/David ‘Dee’ Delgado
A ‘$10m’ settlement with the Intercontinental
Towards the end of her questioning by the defence, Cassie was read a message from Combs in September 2012, in which he asked “do you want to have our last FO [freak off] tonight?” – to which she responded, “I don’t want to freak off for the last time, I want it to be the first time for the rest of our lives”.
In a surprise turn, Cassie also confirmed that an expected settlement of $10m had been agreed with the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, where she was assaulted.
Following her time in court, she released a statement saying she hoped her testimony would help others “heal from the abuse and fear”.
“For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember,” she said. “And the more I can remember, the more I will never forget.”
The next witness, special agent Yasin Binda, detailed items found during a search of Combs’s Park Hyatt hotel room in 2004, following his arrest that year.
She showed the court images of exhibits including lubricant and baby oil, drugs and a bum bag containing $9,000 (£6,800) in cash.
Image: Dawn Richard points at Combs during the trial. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
‘Hit over the head with a skillet of eggs’
At the end of the day, Dawn Richard, a former member of girl group Danity Kane and trio Dirty Money, gave evidence, telling the court she observed Combs attacking Cassie, including a time he “hit her over the head with a skillet of eggs”.
She went on to say Combs “dragged” Cassie upstairs where she “heard glass breaking”, adding she had “never seen anything” like it before – “he was punching his girlfriend”.
Richard said she didn’t intervene or report the incident to the police as she was “scared”.
The singer sued Combs last year, accusing him of physical abuse, groping and psychological abuse during her time working with him.
Combs has been jailed since September and faces at least 15 years or possibly life in prison if convicted.
A man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie, leaving the author blind in one eye, has been jailed for 25 years.
Hadi Matar was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in February.
Prosecutors had been seeking the maximum sentence of 25 years for the attack in August 2022, along with an additional seven-year term for injuring a second man.
Image: Hadi Matar. Pic: AP
During the trial, Sir Salman revealed he feared he was dying when the masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times.
The attack happened as the 77-year-old was introduced on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in New York for a discussion on writer safety.
Sir Salman was stabbed in the head, neck, torso and left hand and suffered damage to his liver and intestines.
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From 2024: Salman Rushdie recalls stabbing
The Midnight’s Children author spent 17 days at a hospital in Pennsylvania and more than three weeks at a rehabilitation facility in New York City, as he recovered from his injuries. He wrote about the attack and his recovery in his 2024 memoir Knife.
Matar will next face a trial on terrorism-related charges. Prosecutors allege the 27-year-old was trying to carry out a decades-old fatwa calling for the author’s death.
In 1989, Iran’s then leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued the fatwa in response to the publication of Sir Salman’s novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous, causing the Indian born British-American author to go into hiding.
In 1998, Iran announced it would not enforce the decree, allowing Sir Salman to travel freely over the last quarter of a century.
Matar pleaded not guilty to providing materials to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries.