Formerly known as the Critics’ Choice award, the prize recognises the best new musical talent this country has to offer, with previous winners including Adele, Sam Fender and last year’s recipient, Holly Humberstone.
Specifically, the award recognises quality British acts who haven’t yet achieved an Official Album Charts Top 20 or had more than one Top 20 in the Official Singles Chart as of October 31, 2022.
Among the three-act shortlist for this year is Bradford-born Nia Archives, who is currently riding something of a wave of jungle and drum n’ bass revival in the country.
Nia Archives
Having taught herself production at 16, she moved from Leeds to Manchester, where she became involved in the rave scene and her musical output has been for what she’s called “introverted extroverts”.
“Words won’t describe how I’m feeling about being nominated for the Brits Rising Star,” she said. “Growing up and watching it on TV, I really never thought it could happen to someone like me.”
Nia Archives is joined by RnB group Flo, who have had a strong year following the release of their debut single ‘Cardboard Box’ some seven months ago. That song not only won the group plaudits among the likes of Missy Elliott and Kelly Rowland, but also won Spotify’s fan-voted Who We Be ‘Song of the Summer’.
FLO dropped their debut EP The Lead in the summer, and it’s gone on to amass over 70 million global streams.
FLO
“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.”
Equally, a remix of ‘Cardboard Box’ led to a viral dance on TikTok, with over 400,000 versions of the track being created on the platform at its peak.
Another rising star to have experienced success on TikTok is Cat Burns, who completes the rising star shortlist. Her track ‘Go’ has been used more than 850,000 times on the platform, leading to more than 1 billion views.
Cat Burns
The success has naturally acted as a springboard for the emerging artist, with the tune not only being reworked with a Sam Smith feature, but Burns also finished supporting Ed Sheeran on the European leg of his tour earlier this year. (Read our review of her headline gig at Koko here).
The BRIT Awards 2023 is due to take place on 11 February at The O2 in London, in what will mark 30 years of it being broadcast on ITV.
