Celebrating British music at the 2021 BRIT Awards with some of our most-loved artist nominees 11 May 2021
We're counting down to the 2021 BRIT Awards, set to take over The O2 once more on Tuesday 11 May.
We want to celebrate the incredible British artists that have smashed it this year and brought new music that has inspired our creative community. Rising talent has been given a huge voice on our platform, like Young T & Bugsey in the Breakthrough Category, to established names like Dua Lipa who have embraced TikTok and found new, authentic and creative ways to engage with their fans.
We analysed the BRITs nominees on TikTok, looking at the success of their catalogues on the platform globally. Incredibly, it's revealed that the 2021 BRITs nominees have collectively amassed over 217 billion video views across 222 million video creations.
Paul Hourican, Head of Music Operations UK for TikTok: "From all of us at TikTok, a big congratulations to each and every artist nominee in the 2021 BRIT Awards. The BRITs are always such a big moment on the music calendar, and this year, our community is throwing their support behind their favourite nominees by creating content with these much-loved sounds.
It has been a big year again for British music, and we're honoured so many of our homegrown artists are choosing TikTok to reach their fans, share their talent and inspire our creative community. "
The BRITs Bounce!
Our community has undoubtedly thrown their support behind the BRITs, with several artists experiencing a huge jump in engagement in the UK alone since they were nominated. Across almost every category, we saw an uplift in video views and video creations - here's a snapshot of some of the biggest 'bounces' since the nominees were announced looking at the average increase between pre- and post nomination announcement.
- Best Album: +155% average increase in UK video creations across nominees
- Best British Female: +144% average increase in UK video creations across nominees
- Best British Male: +71% average increase in UK video creations across nominees
- Best British Group: +42% average increase in UK video creations across nominees
- Breakthrough Artist: +25% average increase in UK video creations across nominees
(Data based on analysis for 4 weeks pre and 4 weeks prior by UK TikTok users, averaged per category across nominees)
Some artists in particular saw a massive boost in engagement across their music catalogue:
For Best Album and Best British Female, Dua Lipa continues to be 'Queen of TikTok' as the most popular UK artist. Since her BRITs nomination, her catalogue of music has seen a 519% growth in video views and staggering 600% growth in video creations.
TikTokers also love J Hus' upbeat afroswing, throwing their weight behind his nominations for Best British Male and Best Album with a 411% growth in video views and 499% growth in video creations.
For Best British Group, Little Mix saw an incredible 175% increase in video creations and 46% increase in video views following their BRITS nod.
For Breakthrough Artist, TikTok favourites Young T and Bugsey saw a big BRITs bounce with 40% increase in video creations in the month after their BRITs nomination leading to an 81% increase in video views.
You might also remember that the standout track of last summer was Harry Styles' Watermelon Sugar and it took off on TikTok in a big way too. It comes as no surprise that he's in the running for Best British Single, with it being one of the most popular nominated tracks both in the UK and around the world, with an amazing 1.3million video creations globally since first landing on TikTok and capturing our community's hearts and creativity.
Looking wider to our global talent, those nominated for International Female, including Cardi B, Arianna Grande, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, together enjoyed almost half a million additional video creations using their music and over 388 million views from UK fans in the four weeks after receiving the nomination - a significant BRITs bounce.
TikTok Playlists & Hashtag Challenges
We've also got an exciting line-up of in-app activations, from hashtag challenges to playlists, to help TikTokers celebrate the BRITs.
Our community has been gearing up for the awards night, with over 18 million video views on the #BRITsCovers challenge as users reimagine their much-loved tracks from the nominees. Even the legendary Rick Astley has paid homage to Biffy Clyro with his cover of 'Many of Horror', whilst Hozier performed his favourite Billie Eilish track.
If you're looking for more BRITs inspiration, you can check out our BRITs Nominees Playlist on the Sounds Page which has top tracks from all of the artists nominated at the BRITs 2021. We also have a BRITs Breakthrough Playlist featuring the brilliant Arlo Parks, Bicep, Celeste, Joel Corry and Young T & Bugsey.
To spice up your video creations after the awards ceremony, we'll also have a playlist dedicated to the BRITs Winners!
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THE HEADLINES
Lucian Grainge outlines UMG's 2026 plans in staff memo (see News)
Skye Newman wins Radio 1's Sound of 2026 (see News)
Spotify now lets you share what you’re streaming in real time with friends (see Digital)
Streamed and retail entertainment sales grew four times faster than UK economy in 2025 (see News)
UMG announces collaboration with NVIDIA to pioneer responsible AI for music discovery, creation, and engagement (see News)
2026 music industry predictions (see Features)
New wave of global British breakthrough talent helps UK recorded music grow for 11th consecutive year (see News)
What’s going to give you the marketing edge in 2026? (see Features)
The global value of music copyright hits an all-time high (see Reports)
The 'metamorphosis' of Atlantic Records (see Features)
Looking ahead to 2026 (see Opinion)
Boost for artists in AI copyright battle as only 3% back UK active opt-out plan (see News)
Music discovery: More channels, more problems (see Reports)
