British Breakthrough Act nominations announced

Catfish and the Bottlemen, James Bay, Jess Glynne, Wolf Alice and Years & Years are nominated for the BRIT Award for British Breakthrough Act, all hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner Sam Smith.

Indie darlings Catfish and the Bottlemen and Wolf Alice receive their first BRIT nominations this year, having wowed fans and critics alike in 2015. Welsh rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen, fronted by Van McCann, saw their first album ‘The Balcony’ go to No. 10 in the album charts in late 2014, while Londoners Wolf Alice hit the No. 2 spot with their debut ‘My Love Is Cool’ in the summer of last year.

Both Jess Glynne and Years & Years have multiple nominations in 2016. Glynne will be hoping to take home the awards for British Female and British Single as well as this one, with Years & Years nominated in the British Group, Single and Video categories.

Together they take on the only artist to already have a BRIT Award to their name; James Bay, who won the Critics’ Choice Award last time round. As well as British Breakthrough, Bay is up for three more awards this year; British Male, British Album for his debut ‘Chaos and the Calm’ and British Single for ‘Hold Back the River’.

The winner of the British Breakthrough Act is selected following a public vote promoted by BRITs.co.uk and BBC Radio 1.

The BRIT Awards 2016 take place at London’s O2 Arena on 24 February and will be broadcast live on ITV at 8pm GMT. See all the nominations here.