Brian May slams Brit Awards

[Queen Bitch 10,513]

Queen guitarist Brian May excoriated the Brit Awards for its decision to scrap gendered categories, describing the “frightening” move as “a decision that has been made without enough thought.”

Earlier this week, the Brits scrapped four awards — male solo artist, female solo artist, international male solo artist and international female solo artist — in favor of two gender-neutral categories — artist of the year and international artist of the year. Organizers said the change was to reward artists “solely for their music and work, rather than how they choose to identify or as others may see them” and was part of the event’s “commitment to evolving the show to be as inclusive and as relevant as possible.”

Speaking to The Mirror newspaper at ITV’s Palooza event in London on Nov. 23, May took aim at the organizers of the U.K.’s biggest music awards for giving into woke culture as he saw it and even suggested that Queen, and even the late Freddie Mercury, would have struggled in the current climate.

“It’s a decision that has been made without enough thought. A lot of things work quite well and can be left alone,” May said.

“I get so sick of people trying to change things without thinking of the long-term consequences,” he added. “Some of these things are an improvement, some of them are not.”

The veteran rocker also spoke at length about his former bandmate Freddie Mercury and how the band would struggle to be relevant today for their lack of diversity and how such things shouldn’t matter. “Freddie came from Zanzibar, he wasn’t British, he wasn’t white as such – nobody cares, nobody ever, ever discussed it,” May said.

“He was a musician, he was our friend, he was our brother. We didn’t have to stop and think: ‘Ooh, now, should we work with him? Is he the right color? Is he the right sexual proclivity?’ None of that happened, and now I find it frightening that you have to be so calculating about everything.”

He added: “[Queen] would be forced to have people of different colors and different sexes and we would have to have a trans [person]. You know life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/queen-brian-may-brit-awards-1235053217/

 

[HuffsAhoy 7,433]

He makes some nice points, especially about having to make sure you check the diversity boxes or be branded a bigot. But he comes across as too angry. It's giving me this vibe

 

 

[AJRocketMan 2,684]

Everything he says is totally true. K.d. Lang also find this baffling. The media needs to get over themselves.

[River 90,488]

The only problem with the change is that women can not win for a long time.

like just imagine a scenario where Uptown Funk is nominated, or Shape of You.. the climate is still dominated by male artists.

[insight 2,425]

This is what happens when inclusivity is taken to extremes.

[ChicaSkas 21,061]

2 minutes ago, River said:

The only problem with the change is that women can not win for a long time.

like just imagine a scenario where Uptown Funk is nominated, or Shape of You.. the climate is still dominated by male artists.

Exactly.  That's what hes saying 

[FATCAT 55,820]

I think he's right that this wasn't thought through, but what would be a good solution? A third category? maybe 2 ungendered categories? anyone got some ideas?

[PartySick 134,076]

6 minutes ago, FATCAT said:

I think he's right that this wasn't thought through, but what would be a good solution? A third category? maybe 2 ungendered categories? anyone got some ideas?

¿Por qué no los dos?

Male artist of the year, female artist of the year, international male artist of the year, international female artist of the year, then like...idk, annual icon and international icon awards or something.

 

[RahrahWitch 6,901]

I don't really agree, I love that the Brit awards are at least TRYING to make a positive change.  If it doesn't work out then they can always go back.

Gender inequality in music is a valid concern but what's the alternative? Segregate every award into the genders people identify with when gender identity really has nothing to do with musical talent at all?

[spicemuncher 1,533]

He is absolutely 100% correct. 

[QUEENH 711]

Yep... Its so stupid. We're really gonna look back at this stuff in a few years and cringe 

[Flawless 2,092]

Grammy doesn't have gender categories and they work well. Don't know why BRITs wouldn't work too. 

[Roronoa 6,324]

 Yaassss women will never win ever again. 
 

[Roughhouse Dandy 4,814]

Gross. 

[weed 66,815]

He can have an issue with it but I don't understand his point at all..... because there's now gender-neutral categories, he would have had to consider whether or not working with Freddie Mercury because of his ethnicity?