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— doja cat (@DojaCat) January 31, 2022

The 26-year-old artist is included within this year’s nominations. Doja Cat is shortlisted for International Artist Of The Year and Best International Song for her collaboration with SZA entitled “Kiss Me More”. The single was released on 9th April 2021 and sired the rapper great success along with three Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The multi-talented artist is no stranger to accolades, however this year marks her first nomination for a Brit award and this year’s ceremony would also have been her first performance at the awards event.

This recent cancellation is the hitmaker’s third termination of a live performance due to COVID. On 11th December 2021, the singer was forced to withdraw from several shows from the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour, the cancelled shows were scheduled for New York and Boston. Doja Cat confirmed the cancellation was due to members of her road crew receiving positive tests for COVID. At the time of the confirmation, the singer took to Twitter to post a full statement.

iHeart update…I love you guys so much and I’m so sad this is happening but I will see you all soon pic.twitter.com/kwcmdGJTe4 — doja cat (@DojaCat) December 10, 2021

On 12th December 2021, the singer confirmed that she could not finish the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour as she had tested positive for the virus herself. The “Woman” singer had six dates remaining and was forced to cancel shows in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta and Miami. To announce the cancellation, the singer also took to Twitter to share an emotive statement confirming the news.

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— doja cat (@DojaCat) December 12, 2021

This year’s BRIT Awards will be a historical event in music and cultural history, for the first time, the awards will feature genderless categories. The 2022 ceremony will also include four new genre-based awards, Alternative/Rock Act, Hip-Hop/Grime/Rap Act, Dance Act and Pop Act. Speaking on the British institution’s changes, co-president of Polydor Records has stated, “It is important that the Brits continue to evolve and aim to be as inclusive as possible.”

Hosting responsibilities for this year’s event have been bestowed to Mo Gilligan. the comedian will be replacing veteran host Jack Whitehall who stepped down after four years at the helm. Gilligan is best known for his chat show The Lateish Show, a Channel 4 production which debuted in 2019. The remaining performers for the event are still scheduled to take the stage, Brit icon Liam Gallagher, Ed Sheeran, Dace, Sam Fender, Little Simz and 2022’s Brits rising star award winner Holly Humberston are all billed to perform at the ceremony.

The Music Venue Trust is a charity is tasked with the aim of the safe reopening of grassroots venues as well as the re-emergence of live music in the UK. Revealing their new plan in November called ‘The Traffic Light’ campaign, which served as an update on their victorious #SaveOurVenues campaign. The campaign was successful in saving 13 venues from the ‘red list’ including Four Horsemen in Bournemouth, Hootenanny in Inverness and Rossi Bar located in Brighton. New campaigns are following the next steps to bring live music back to the nation as safely and successfully as it can.

CEO of Music Venue Trust Mark Davyd has released this information, “The crisis is nearing its final lap but we need to make sure these venues finish the race. With the support of artists and audiences, we have fought our way through the last 11 months venue by venue, case by case, trying to make sure that venues can Reopen Every Venue Safely. These 6 newly highlighted venues need urgent help, and we still have 14 venues that were on the original Red list that we can’t yet guarantee will survive to bring live music back to our communities. We are completely determined that they will.”

The charity has released a new ‘red list’ which lists all the venues which are currently in danger of permeant closure, here visitors and supporters can donate funds to the venue of their choice, and the great thing is that if an individual venue has raised enough money for their safety the donation will go to other venues still on the ‘red list’. As well as the ability to donate to support the charity, The Music Venue Trust also sells merch to aid the cause.

Loved venues that are included in the list are Boom in Leeds, Spiritual Bar in London, and the warehouse club for electronic fans, Egg, located in Kings Cross. Included on the list is the legendary Islington venue The Lexington, opened under the current name in 2008, in October of last year the venue was put on the list to benefit from the Cultural Recovery Fund given by Arts Council England. The Venue is unfortunately still at risk of closure and is crowdfunding to survive post-COVID.

With the news on February 22nd from Boris Johnson, giving a road map to a sense of normality for our lives as well as a revival for music and live events, it is more important than ever that the grassroots venues are supported.

Click here to view the Red List and donate and click here to buy merch.