- Observer Music Monthly, Sunday 22 January 2006
Kaiser Chiefs
Brits nominations: Best British group, British album, British rock act, British breakthrough act, British live act
The Kaisers' irrepressible singer Ricky Wilson holds a mirror to the seamier side of English life in the same way as the Kinks and the Jam did for earlier generations. His group's debut , Employment, bristles with tracksuits, dead-end jobs, Saturday night yobbery and homesickness, helping to make the British vernacular fashionable again. More importantly, its potent blend of Merseybeat melody and postpunk energy means it has been instantly adopted as the savvy youths' sing-along soundtrack of choice .
Will Young
Brits nominations: Best British male solo artist
Will Young has paid his dues. He's suffered the power ballads and shaken off the shame of being unearthed on a reality TV show. With his second album Keep On, written with Cathy Dennis and Nitin Sawhney, the 26-year-old has even abandoned safe pop territory. As such Young's transformation echoes George Michael's solo career in the wake of Wham!. In fact, it is all but impossible to imagine a more suitable successor to the lounge-soul throne.
KT Tunstall
Brits nominations: Best British female solo artist, British breakthrough act, British live act
Kate 'KT' Tunstall is a patient lady. The St Andrews songstress spent the best part of a decade toiling in obscurity before catching the public's imagination. Almost unrecognisable from her early incarnation as part of Fife's folk coterie the Fence Collective, the 30-year-old's debut Eye to the Telescope unveiled a hitherto suppressed pop sensibility that showcased her songwriting to brilliant effect. 'I keep sitting on planes going, "Is this real?"' she recently confessed. 'Sometimes I can't believe what has happened.'
Kano
Brits nominations: Best urban act
What with his charm and apparently ambivalent attitude towards success, Kano (real name Kane Robinson), 21, represents the changing face of grime. The east London MC maintains his credibility by working with the Streets and the Mitchell Brothers, while managing to secure 'props' from Ken Livingstone, who named him as one of his 'heroes' of last year. Perhaps that's because, in sidestepping grime's aggro-ridden roots in favour of a more thoughtful approach, Kano's music serves as a rejoinder to the braggadocio of much US rap.
James Blunt
Brits nominations: Best male solo artist, British album, British breakthrough act, British single , pop act
The chorus of 'You're Beautiful', the inescapable accompaniment to last summer, propelled the 28-year-old Blunt into the pop stratosphere. Never mind that his credentials - boarding school, university, Sandhurst - were more suited to some forgotten royal than a lip-trembling balladeer. His debut album Back to Bedlam, steeped in his experiences of love and war (he served in Kosovo), sold 2.37m copies last year, more than any other album in one calendar year in the history of British pop.
Brits nominees
British male solo artist
Antony and the Johnsons
Ian Brown
James Blunt
Robbie Williams
Will Young
British female solo artist
Charlotte Church
Kate Bush
Katie Melua
KT Tunstall
Natasha Bedingfield
British group
Coldplay
Franz Ferdinand
Gorillaz
Hard-Fi
Kaiser Chiefs
Mastercard British album
Coldplay, X&Y
Gorillaz, Demon Days
James Blunt, Back to Bedlam
Kaiser Chiefs, Employment
Kate Bush, Aerial
British rock act
Franz Ferdinand
Hard-Fi
Kaiser Chiefs
Kasabian
Oasis
British urban act
Craig David
Dizzee Rascal
Kano
Lemar
Ms Dynamite
British breakthrough act
Arctic Monkeys
James Blunt
Kaiser Chiefs
KT Tunstall
The Magic Numbers
British live act
Coldplay
Kaiser Chiefs
British single
Coldplay, 'Speed of Sound'
James Blunt, 'You're Beautiful'
Shayne Ward, 'That's My Goal'
Sugababes, 'Push the Button'
Tony Christie, '(Is This the Way to) Amarillo?'
British & international pop act
James Blunt
Katie Melua
Kelly Clarkson
Madonna
Westlife
International male solo artist
Beck
Bruce Springsteen
Jack Johnson
John Legend
Kanye West
International female solo artist
Bjork
Kelly Clarkson
Madonna
Mariah Carey
Missy Elliott
International group
Arcade Fire
Black Eyed Peas
Green Day
U2
White Stripes
International album
Arcade Fire, Funeral
Green Day, American Idiot
Kanye West, Late Registration
Madonna, Confessions on a Dancefloor
U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
International breakthrough act
Arcade Fire
Daniel Powter
Jack Johnson
John Legend
Pussycat Dolls
