Starting from next February, the separate gendered categories, which originated in 1977, will be combined into single prizes for Best British Artist, Artist of the Year and International Artist of the Year.

That means that there’ll be no best British male and female solo artist, which were won by Dua Lipa and J Hus this year. The change will also be reflected in the category for best international male and female solo artist, which were awarded to The Weeknd and Billie Eilish in 2020.

The move comes after the Brits academy faced mounting pressure to remove its gendered categories and accommodate non-binary artists. Sam Smith, who won the Critics’ Choice prize in 2014 and identifies as non-binary, has previously called for awards shows to be more “reflective of the society we live in” after they missed out on a nomination in the gendered categories for solo artist at this year’s awards.

Brit Awards 2022: the gender-neutral categories see the most female nominees in more than a decade