When the Brit Awards announced back in November that they would be scrapping gender-based nominations, many caught cold feet.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said she was "concerned" about female representation, while Piers Morgan called the move "woke garbage".

However, it looks like the nominations have so far proved the pessimists wrong! delivering the most female nominees in more than a decade. Adele, Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa are all in the running for multiple prizes.

Adele alongside Ed Sheeran, Little Simz and Dave received the most nominations for the awards with all artists featuring in the prestigious best album and best British artist categories.

Little Mix, who this year became the first female act to win best British group, are in the running for that prize once again.

Their competition includes Coldplay, who receive a record ninth nomination in the category (they've won four times) alongside grime act D-Block Europe and two female-fronted bands, Wolf Alice and London Grammar.

Central cee was also nominated for three awards including best new artist while Abba made a historic comeback with a nomination for best international band alongside, K-pop giants BTS, Eurovision winners Meneskin, indie band The War On Drugs and Bruno Mars's 1970s throwback project, Silk Sonic.

A total of 13 artists got double nominations, including Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Glass Animals, Wolf Alice and Dua Lipa.

The prizes will be handed out on 8 February 2022 at London's O2 Arena, with comedian Mo Gilligan taking over from Jack Whitehall as the host.

The ceremony will also see the introduction of four new genre awards; recognising the best pop, rock, dance and hip-hop acts of the year. Winners in those categories will be determined by a public vote via TikTok.

Gender neutral nominations

Despite the gender-neutral nominations, women are still wildly outnumbered on 2022 shortlist. Only 18 female acts were nominated for the awards; a figure that is dwarfed by the 48 male acts nominated for 2022's run of the awards.

However, organisers are hopeful that this sort of disparity could actually be helpful, by turning "a spotlight" on problems that need fixing in the industry.

Nonetheless, putting the debate aside, two female acts are the sure-fire front runners for the night's biggest prizes.

Olivia Rodrigo, who has set the charts alight with hits like Drivers License and Good 4U, would have reasonable grounds for complaint if she lost the best international artist prize.

And Adele, whose emotionally raw "divorce album", 30, is on target to become the biggest seller of the year, is all but locked in for the best British album award.

If the star wins all four of the prizes she's nominated for, she will equal Robbie Williams as the artist with the most Brit Awards -13 in all.