Raye leads the shortlists for this year’s Brit Awards with a record seven nominations – after leaving her label and taking a gamble as an independent artist.
The singer-songwriter is up for prizes including best new artist, artist of the year, and album of the year for her debut record, My 21st Century Blues, and also has two entries in the song of the year category.
Image: Dua Lipa, who is up for three awards, will perform once again at the ceremony. Pic: Brit Awards
Rayedescribed it as a “miracle” after it was announced she has broken the Brit Awards record for the most nominations received by a single artist in any one year. The record was previously six and was jointly held by Robbie Williams (1999), Craig David (2001) and Gorillaz (2002).
“A year-and-a-half ago as far as the industry was concerned, I was down and out,” she said. “The ultimate goal was to find my way somehow to the Brit Awards.”
In a message to her fans, she added: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Image: Central Cee has four nominations. Pic: Brit Awards
Image: J Hus is also nominated for four Brit Awards in 2024. Pic: Brit Awards
Central Cee and J Hus follow Raye with four nominations each, while Blur, Calvin Harris, Dave, Little Simz, Olivia Dean, Young Fathers and four-time winner Dua Lipa – the first star to be revealed as one of the performers on the night this year – are all up for three awards.
Blur’s The Ballad Of Darren, J Hus’s Beautiful And Brutal Yard, Little Simz’s No Thank You and Young Fathers’ Heavy Heavy compete with Raye for the album of the year award, while Little Simz and J Hus also join her on the shortlist for artist of the year.
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What is the gender balance this year?
Image: Olivia Dean is up for three awards, including artist of the year. Pic: Brit Awards
More than half (55%) of this year’s nominations feature women – either as a solo artist or as part of female groups – rising to 57% when women in mixed-gender groups are included.
Dua Lipa also makes the shortlist for best artist, along with Central Cee, Dave, Fred Again.., Arlo Parks, Jessie Ware and Olivia Dean – and in the best group category, Blur and Chase & Status are up against Headie One & K-Trap, Jungle and Young Fathers.
Image: Young Fathers are in the running for three prizes, including group of the year. Pic: Brit Awards
Image: Blur are also nominated for three gongs. Pic: Reuben Bastienne-Lewis/Brit Awards
Many of these names appear again on the song of the year shortlist of 15 tracks – with Central Cee, like Raye, also making the list twice, and Lewis Capaldi‘s Wish You The Best, Ed Sheeran‘s Eyes Closed, and Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s Miracle among the hits recognised.
Up against Raye for best new artist are Mahalia, Olivia Dean, PinkPantheress and Yussef Dayes.
International stars up for awards
Image: Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For?, from the Barbie soundtrack, is up for international song of the year. Pic: Reuters/Mike Blake
In the international categories, Burna Boy, Kylie Minogue, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift are among the solo stars in the running, while Foo Fighters, Paramore and Gabriel are included in the bands shortlisted for international group of the year.
Billie Eilish‘s What Was I Made For?, Tyla’s Water, Cyrus’s Flowers, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season and SZA’s Kill Bill are among the tracks up for international song of the year.
The number of genre categories – which are voted for by the public – has been expanded this year, with fans now able to choose their favourite alternative/rock act, pop act, RnB act, dance act, and hip-hop/grime/rap act.
Becky Hill, Charli XCX, Romy, Barry Can’t Swim, Casisdead, Mahalia, Jorja Smith and Cleo Sol are among the additional artists up for awards in these categories.
This year also sees the first Brit nomination for The Rolling Stonesin more than a decade – for best alternative/rock act, thanks to their chart-topping comeback in October – with the band having been nominated four times previously in 1977, 1995, 1996 and 2013.
Indie-rock group The Last Dinner Party – Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies and Aurora Nishevci – have already been revealed as the winners of the rising star award, which recognises up-and-coming talent.
They follow in the footsteps of the likes of Adele, Florence & The Machine, Sam Smith, Sam Fender, Celeste and last year’s winners FLO, who all picked up the prize as they were getting started in their careers.
Meanwhile, the winners of the songwriter of the year and producer of the year awards will be revealed over the coming weeks, along with other show announcements, ahead of the ceremony at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday 2 March.
Actor Michael Madsen, who starred in Reservoir Dogs and Thelma & Louise, died from heart failure, his cardiologist has said.
The 67-year-old was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, last Thursday and pronounced dead.
His doctor said heart disease and alcoholism will be listed as factors which contributed to the star’s death, reported NBC Los Angeles.
With no suspicious circumstances and the death listed as being from natural causes, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department considers the case closed.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Madsen’s film credits include Free Willy, Donnie Brasco and Sin City.
He was also known for his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino, including in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
The Chicago-born actor also linked up with Tarantino when he played Mr Blonde in 1992’s Reservoir Dogs.
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Image: Madsen played numerous roles, including Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs. Pic: THA/Shutterstock
His sister, Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, paid tribute to her brother in a statement to Variety.
She wrote: “My brother Michael has left the stage.
“He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother – etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark.”
Madsen was preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts And Poems.
A statement by managers Susan Ferris and Smith, and publicist Liz Rodriguez, said the book by “one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors” was currently being edited.
Horse-drawn carriages, picturesque gardens and endless cups of tea are just some of the stereotypical tropes that have shaped America’s romanticised image of England before even stepping foot on the island.
Thanks to classical literature and a steady stream of period dramas, Lena Dunham was no exception.
“I had so many fantasies,” she tells Sky News about growing up slightly obsessed with British culture.
“I loved Jane Austen, I loved Charlotte Bronte, I love British film, I was one of those little Anglophile kids.”
The writer and director believed it would be that area of classically depicted England that would fill her time when she first moved to “jolly old London” as a teenager with her mother for a brief time.
Instead, her attention was taken by another, and possibly equally influential group of artists.
“There was a pop show about S Club 7 and all I did was just sit in the hotel and obsessively watch things relating to [the group],” she said.
“So, I didn’t go home with all this cultural British knowledge. I went home with a deep abiding love of S Club 7 and came back to school when everyone was obsessed with the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.
“For me, I was literally like, ‘Guys, you got to hear this hot track right off the presses, it’s called Reach For The Stars’.”
Image: Pic: Netflix
It wasn’t until her 30s, when the actress moved again to the city, that reality took hold and she quickly learned the difference between the imagined London and the real city.
Some stereotypes hold true, like the universal love for Paddington. Still, TV tropes like renting a flat on a single income in the city does not necessarily mean you’ll be treated to lavish rooms and a picturesque garden.
She says it was social cues she found most challenging to adjust to, as well as the different dictionaries used when speaking, technically, the same language.
“You come to a new country and even though you speak the same language, you’re totally absent from those tools,” she says.
“And I found that really striking as an adult in my 30s, trying to make friends, trying to date. I found it confusing enough to be a person in my own city of origin, so this was extra confounding.”
Too Much, her new Netflixseries, is loosely inspired by her own London chapter and follows a workaholic New Yorker in her 30s who is sent across the Atlantic to work on a new project.
The 10-episode show is produced by Working Title – the company behind Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, About A Boy and Love Actually – and stars Hacks breakout actress Megan Stalter and The White Lotus actor Will Sharpe.
Image: Pic: Netflix
Dunham says she always wanted to write about her time in the UK, but it was a conversation with Irish actor Andrew Scott that got the ball rolling.
“Actually, he’s the reason that I came to know Meg as an actor because he loved her on Hacks and he loved her videos, and he said: ‘Have you watched this woman’s work? I feel like there’s a real connection between you two’, and I started watching because of him and built a show around her.”
In a full circle moment, Scott appears in the series briefly as an arrogantly odd man who crosses paths with Megan Stalter’s character Jessica.
Image: Pic: Netflix
The Ridley actor isn’t the only famous face joining the cast in a cameo role. Dunham put a call out to most of Hollywood, and luckily lots were on board.
To name just a few, guest stars include Jessica Alba, Stephen Fry, Adwoa Aboah, Kit Harington, Rita Wilson, Rita Ora, Richard E Grant, Emily Ratajkowski, Andrew Scott, Prasanna Puwanarajah and Jennifer Saunders.
“It was one of those situations where you just reach for the stars, literally, and then you can’t believe when they appear,” says Dunham.
“It was just a non-stop parade of people that I was fascinated by, wanted to be around, completely enamoured of.”
Image: A whole host of high-profile cameos feature in Lena Dunham’s Too Much
She adds: “I remember asking Naomi Watson, thinking, there’s absolutely no way that you’re going to want to come play this slightly demented woman. And she’s so playful and she’s so joyful and she just wanted to come and engage.
“Also, Jennifer Saunders has meant so much to me for so long, I had the AbFab box set as a kid, and I just think Patsy and Edina are the ultimate kind of messy women.
“She really showed me what comedy could be and… the space that women could occupy in comedy, and so having her come and join the show was really incredible.
“That was an episode that someone else was directing, Alicia McDonald, an amazing director, so I just got to sit and watch at the monitor like I was watching a movie, and it was very surreal for me.”
Former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has vowed he will “not go quietly”, amid reports that he has been sacked by the BBC.
It comes after the TV hostfaced an investigation, commissioned by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK, into alleged inappropriate behaviour while working for the BBC.
In November, the 60-year-old stepped back from presenting the cooking show after accusations that he made sexual comments towards staff and celebrity guests on a range of programmes over 17 years.
Image: Gregg Wallace received an MBE for services to food and charity in 2023. Pic: PA
Broadcaster Kirsty Wark, author and actor Emma Kennedy, and presenter Kirstie Allsopp, were among the high-profile figures who made claims of inappropriate behaviour against Wallace.
In a statement, released ahead of the publication of the summary of a report into the claims, the 60-year-old said he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.
However, he said the report, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin, had found him “primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018”.
Wallace’s statement, published on Instagram, came hours before the BBC News reported that 50 more people had made claims to the corporation against the presenter, including allegations he groped one MasterChef worker and pulled his trousers down in front of another.
In his statement, Wallace labelled BBC News’s claims as “uncorroborated tittle-tattle”.
Wallace wrote: “I have taken the decision to speak out ahead of the publication of the Silkin’s report – a decision I do not take lightly.
“But after 21 years of loyal service to the BBC, I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others.
“I have now been cleared by the Silkin’s report of the most serious and sensational accusations made against me.
“The most damaging claims (including from public figures which have not been upheld) were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.
“To be clear, the Silkin’s report exonerates me of all the serious allegations which made headlines last year and finds me primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018.”
Image: Gregg Wallace on MasterChef. Pic: BBC/ Shine TV 2024
‘I was hired as the cheeky greengrocer – now that’s a problem’
Wallace said he recognised that “some of my humour and language” was at times “inappropriate” and, for that, he apologised “without reservation”.
“But I was never the caricature now being sold for clicks,” Wallace, who also referred to his recent diagnosis of autism, added.
“I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges, and all.
“For over two decades, that authenticity was part of the brand. Now, in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem.”
Image: Wallace and his partner Anna Wallace, pictured in 2014
Wallace: Complaints from ‘middle-class women of a certain age’
Shortly after the allegations first emerged, Wallace recorded a video where he dismissed his accusers as “middle-class women of a certain age”.
His remarks were met with huge criticism – including from Downing Street, where a spokesperson for the prime minister described them as “completely inappropriate and misogynistic”.
Wallace responded by posting a follow-up clip where he apologised and said he “wasn’t in a good space” when he posted the comments.
In April, Wallace spoke to the Daily Mail, denying all accusations against him and saying he had contemplated suicide following the allegations.
Wallace’s lawyers have previously called allegations that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature “entirely false”.
A spokesperson for the BBC said: “Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published.”
A Banijay spokesperson told Sky News: “We won’t be commenting until our report is published.” They have signalled the report will be published later this week or next.
Banijay previously said Wallace is “committed to fully co-operating” with the external review.
Alongside MasterChef, Wallace presented Inside The Factory for BBC Two from 2015 to 2023.
He also featured on various BBC shows over the years, including Saturday Kitchen, Eat Well For Less, Supermarket Secrets, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals, as well as being a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2014.
More recently, Wallace has been promoting his health and lifestyle website, offering one-to-one coaching from both himself and a team of experts, which includes nutritionists and doctors, and his wife Anna in the role of recipe curator.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.