Predictably, the right-wing culture war is wrong about the BRITs

Like clockwork, some moments in the cultural calendar trigger the tedious "anti-woke" discourse. After Last Night of the Proms fury, comes Poppy rage (usually because someone took their jacket off), then its being angry about radio edits of 'Fairytale of New York', and then sometimes, if they have enough anger left, it's the annual politicians, Talk TV hosts, and Telegraph/Mail/Express columnists being strategically hypersensitive about a pop music awards show.

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Last year, the BRITs ire was focused on Sabrina Carpenter's suggestive gestures. A few years ago it was something to do with Sam Smith's outfit, and before that it was the end of gendered award categories.

Yes, there was a moment, back when the UK's Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries was still a member of the Conservative party (before she inevitably joined Reform UK LTD) when the BRITs is "going woke" discourse was all about demise of the Best Female Artist and just having Best Artist. (Best Male Artist was also merged into one prize, but that didn't get much attention at the time).

Back then, if you were on the platform formerly known as Twitter, you'd either have seen grievance farmers worried about how the awards were either "rigged for women" or see a clip of someone on GB News getting very upset about the organisers changing things to be inclusive of non-binary artists.

Because inclusion is bad, for reasons.

To be clear, you have not misread that: ahead the 2022 awards, the smooshing together of the BRITs' male and female categories was denounced as "woke garbage" (hi, Piers!). Other culture warriors were very very very worried in 2023 when women and girls didn't get a look in the shortlist of 5 artists (notably, it's now 10 acts), whilst some members of the so-called manosphere got upset one year about the sidelining of men...

Meanwhile, most of us just wondered what the opposite of being awake to injustice is whilst feeling a bit old when we hadn't heard "of" Tate Mcrae.

And yet this year,Olivia Dean won four awards. Charli XCX won five last year. Raye won a record six the year before. Then there were the incredible performances at this year's awards shindig, including Dua Lipa being joining Mark Ronson and an incredible performance from ROSALÍA with the most special of special guest: BJÖRK!

Can you hear that? Me either. The pearl-clutchers - whose Tommy Robinson endorsed candidate lost to a lovely seeming Green party plumber in last week's by-election that took place not far from this year's BRITs - are oh-so silent.

Maybe world war three was a bit of a distraction from the annual ragebait. Or maybe they're waiting for someone to tell them which pop star they should be furious about for 6-12 hours and file an Ofcom complaint against.

Anyway, I love a good stat and have been learning how to visualise data, so I spent my Sunday having a proper dig into the numbers. Predictably, the data tells a completely different story to the one the culture warriors were fearful of.

What the numbers show isn't some diversity programme run amok, nor POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD(!!!!!) but a decades-long correction after decades of inequality (or at least an odd misrepresentation of things, especially when the Spice Girls don't win best group).

ICYMI, Emma Wilkes wrote a long read a few weeks ago about why women keep winning, but there's still a lot of work to do but some of this data does how some progress. Let's hope it's not a blip.

Before we get into it, here are 3 great BRITs 2026 performances

ARE WOMEN WINNING? | DROWNED IN SOUND

WHO PERFORMED

2026 BRIT Awards main ceremony performers by gender

4 Female

5 Male

1 Mixed

Female

Male

Mixed

Main ceremony acts

Harry StylesOpening solo set

Olivia DeanSolo performance · 4 wins on the night

Wolf AliceBand set · 1 woman, 3 men

Alex WarrenSolo set

RosalíaMain stage performance · with Björk

SombrSolo performance

HUNTR/XK-pop group · first ever K-pop performance at the BRITs

RAYESolo performance

Mark RonsonOutstanding Contribution tribute · with Dua Lipa, Ghostface Killah & the Dap Kings

Robbie WilliamsOzzy Osbourne tribute

Despite 5 male headline acts to 4 female, women dominated the standout moments. Björk joined Rosalía for one of the night's most striking sets. HUNTR/X made history as the first K-pop group to perform at the BRITs.

This year's performers are part of a shift in who takes the stage at the annual televised celebration of the UK music industry...

ARE WOMEN WINNING? | DROWNED IN SOUND

PERFORMERS OVER TIME

Female representation on the BRITs stage · 1985–2026

Female

Mixed

Male

Era averages — acts by gender

1985–89

38%

1990s

37%

2000s

39%

2010s

41%

2020s

54%

Recent years

2022

Adele · Little Simz · Holly Humberstone · Anne-Marie

33%

2023

Lizzo · Wet Leg · Cat Burns · Becky Hill · Ella Henderson · Sam Smith & Kim Petras

54%

2024

Dua Lipa · Kylie Minogue · Ellie Goulding · Tate McRae · Raye · Becky Hill

70%

2025

Sabrina Carpenter · JADE · The Last Dinner Party · Lola Young · Jorja Smith

56%

2026

Olivia Dean · Rosalía · HUNTR/X · RAYE · Wolf Alice

50%

2026's 50% female-involved lineup is above the 40-year average of ~39% — but it's the 2020s as a whole that mark the real shift. Women have shared or dominated the BRITs stage for five consecutive years. That's new.

What actually happened in 2026

Women won a lot. The full picture is little more nuanced than simple headlines suggests but in short: the competitive awards skewed female whilst the honorary awards skewed male. The genre breakdown is more uneven still.

ARE WOMEN WINNING? | DROWNED IN SOUND

WHO WON WHAT

All 18 awards by gender of winner — 2026

7 Women

6 Men

4 Mixed

Woman

Man

Mixed

Collab

Competitive awards

Olivia DeanArtist of the Year · Album of the Year · Best Pop Act

Sam Fender & Olivia DeanSong of the Year (public vote)

Wolf AliceGroup of the Year

Lola YoungBreakthrough Artist

Jacob AlonCritics' Choice

Sam FenderBest Alt / Rock Act

DaveBest Hip-Hop / Rap / Grime

SaultBest R&B Act

Fred again.., Skepta & PlaqueBoyMaxBest Dance Act

International awards

RosalíaInternational Artist of the Year

GeeseInternational Group of the Year

Rose & Bruno MarsInternational Song of the Year (public vote)

Honorary awards

PinkPantheressProducer of the Year

Noel GallagherSongwriter of the Year

Mark RonsonOutstanding Contribution to Music

Ozzy OsbourneLifetime Achievement

The competitive solo awards lean heavily towards women — but groups and legacy categories tell a different story. Women have won British Group of the Year just 3 times in 50 years : Little Mix in 2021, Wolf Alice in 2022, Wolf Alice again in 2026. And 3 of the 4 honorary awards went to men.

It wasn't always like this

The Album of the Year award has been running since 1977. For most of that time, it was essentially a men-only club. The graphic below shows every winner across 46 years (excluding 78-81 when the awards didn't happen). The three eras tell the whole story.

ARE WOMEN WINNING? | DROWNED IN SOUND

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Gender of every winner — 1977 to 2026

Woman / woman-fronted

Man / male act

Mixed group

1977 – 1999

▼ 3 women in 22 years

1977

The Beatles

78–81

No ceremony

1982

Adam & the Ants

1983

Barbra Streisand

1984

Michael Jackson

1985

Sade

1986

Phil Collins

1987

Dire Straits

1988

Sting

1989

Fairground Attraction

1990

Fine Young Cannibals

1991

George Michael

1992

Seal

1993

Annie Lennox

1994

Stereo MC's

1995

Blur

1996

Oasis

1997

Manic Street Preachers

1998

The Verve

1999

Manic Street Preachers

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

Female winners

1983Barbra Streisand

1985Sade

1989Fairground Attraction

1993Annie Lennox

2000 – 2013

▼ 7 years, no women

2000

Travis

2001

Coldplay

2002

Dido

2003

Coldplay

2004

The Darkness

2005

Keane

2006

Coldplay

2007

Arctic Monkeys

2008

Arctic Monkeys

▲ 4 women in 5 years

2009

Duffy

2010

Florence + the Machine

2011

Mumford & Sons

2012

Adele

2013

Emeli Sandé

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

11

12

13

Female winners

2002Dido

2009Duffy

2010Florence + the Machine

2012Adele

2013Emeli Sandé

2014 – 2026

▼ 1 woman in 7 years

2014

Arctic Monkeys

2015

Ed Sheeran

2016

Adele

2017

David Bowie

2018

Stormzy

2019

The 1975

2020

Dave

▲ 5 women in 6 years

2021

Dua Lipa

2022

Adele

2023

Harry Styles

2024

Raye

2025

Charli XCX

2026

Olivia Dean

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Female winners

2016Adele

2021Dua Lipa

2022Adele

2024Raye

2025Charli XCX

2026Olivia Dean

3

women winners in the first 22 years (1977–1999)

3 in a row

Raye, Charli XCX, Olivia Dean — the longest consecutive streak by women in the award's history

This is not an accident. The same award. The same criteria. The same industry. What changed is who gets to vote — and who gets to make music worth voting for.

Who decided

Culture warriors rant and rave but what they won't tell you is that the awards haven't changed because of a quota system. They've evolved the pool of who votes. The Voting Academy, that's the 1,200ish industry figures who decide most categories, looks dramatically different to how it did in 2016.

ARE WOMEN WINNING? | DROWNED IN SOUND

WHO DECIDES

How the BRITs voting works in 2026

Industry: 16 categories

Fans: 2

~1,200 industry members WhatsApp

The Voting Academy

Around 1,200 industry figures choose nominees and winners for most awards: labels, managers, producers, publishers, media, retailers, live music figures, DSPs. Overseen by Civica Election Services.

Artist of the Year

Album of the Year

Group

Breakthrough

Pop

Alt / Rock

Hip-Hop

R&B

Dance

Int'l Artist

Int'l Group

Critics' Choice

The Public Vote

Only 2 categories decided by fans via WhatsApp voting:

Song of the Year

Int'l Song of the Year

Who are those 1,200 voters?

WHO VOTES

The BRIT Voting Academy, then and now

Male

Female

Non-binary

White

Non-white

Gender

2016

~70%

~30%

2026

46%

47%

6% did not disclose · 1% non-binary

Ethnicity

2016

~85%

~15%

2026

69%

26%

5% did not disclose

Age · 2026

9% Under 25

61% 25–44

18% 45–54

11% 55+

A decade ago, 7 in 10 voters were male. Today the academy is near gender parity. That same period saw 4 of 5 Artist of the Year winners be women. The culture war crowd calls this "woke." The data calls it correlation.

Before victory's declared

None of this is a clean win. The nomination breakdown by genre shows how uneven representation actually is. Pop is all women. Hip-Hop is 80% men. International solo acts are 80% women; International groups are 60% men. The revolution, such as it is, has very specific borders.

ARE WOMEN WINNING? | DROWNED IN SOUND

WHO GOT NOMINATED 2026

All nominees by gender, across every category

Women

Men

Mixed

British categories

Artist of the Year

7

3

Album of the Year

2

2

1

Pop Act

5

R&B Act

3

1

1

Alt / Rock Act

1

2

2

Dance Act

2

3

Hip-Hop / Rap / Grime

1

4

Breakthrough

2

3

International & Group

International Artist

8

2

International Group

1

3

1

British Group

2

2

1

Critics' Choice

2

1

Pop is 100% women. Hip-Hop is 80% men. International Artist is 80% women — International Group is 60% men. The genre silos and the solo/collective split tell a more complicated story than the headline numbers.

What the culture war ignores entirely

All of this culture-war noise focuses on the most visible categories i.e. the ones with famous names and red-carpet moments. Behind the scenes, the picture is almost entirely different. Of the 49 times the Producer of the Year award has been given, 48 went to men. One woman, PinkPantheress , this year, has ever won it.

ARE WOMEN WINNING? | DROWNED IN SOUND

1

female Producer of the Year

In 49 years of the award

PinkPantheress won Producer of the Year at the 2026 BRITs — the first woman ever to do so. Before her, the only woman ever nominated as a solo producer was Kate Bush in 1990. The Grammy equivalent has also never been won by a woman. At 24, PinkPantheress is also the youngest ever winner of the award.

Male winner

Female winner

No award given

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Each dot = one ceremony. Grey = award not given that year. Pink = female winner.

The biggest culture-war claims are about the most visible categories. Behind the scenes, the industry remains overwhelmingly male. One female producer winner in 49 years isn't a sign of reverse discrimination — it's a sign of how much further there is to go.

TL;DR - The right-wing outrage about women winning BRITs isn't protecting women when it sparks outrage. And women will keep winning, regardless.

Read Emma Wilkes' full investigation

BRITS and Grammys galore! But are women winning when they’re not winning?British women like Olivia Dean and Lola Young keep winning awards, however, it doesn’t equate to a better music industry for all women…Drowned in SoundEmma Wilkes

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