A few voters will have ignored the Mika option. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod
It has not escaped the organisers' notice that some sectors of the public believe the Brit Awards to be a sham ceremony that rewards advertising spending not artistic merit. A popular school of thought contends that the results are decided by a secret major-label cabal whose mission is to give every award to their own acts while stopping genuine talent getting so much as a nomination. How else would you account for Mika being up for three awards while Patrick Wolf doesn't get a single mention? And with all those pop nominations this year, the rumblings have got louder.
The current Brits chairman, Ged Doherty, is keen to make both the event and the voting process more credible. He especially wants to dispel the idea that the voting "academy" is comprised only of himself and his corporate cronies. It's not: the 1200 voters include journalists, retailers, radio and TV types and others who aren't directly employed by record labels and can vote for whoever takes their fancy (within the labyrinthine rules of eligibility). So somewhere among those 1200 will have been staunch voices who ignored the Mika option and went for Patrick Wolf, Cat Power, Joanna Newsom - just not enough of them. And there never will be.
If Doherty can't do much to steer voters away from being populist, he does want the academy to be perceived as independent and impartial. So to kick off what has "uphill struggle" written all over it, he plans to appoint a "credible musician" as head of the voting panel for next year's awards. The idea is not that having a respected figurehead (a Neil Tennant, say, or a Damon Albarn) will influence voters to be more creative so that the 2009 Brits can boast a few outsiders in the Best Male category, but that he/she will confer respectability on the usual mainstream choices.
Two people - Doherty won't say who - are apparently already interested in taking on the role. A couple of thoughts. First, would a musician with the kind of left-fieldish firepower Doherty needs want to be associated with an event that attracts so much derision? Second, doesn't it have the ingratiating-yourself-with-the-kids feel of Gordon Brown recruiting a hoodie to be head of an Asbo policy committee?
Do you think this will work? Would the presence of Tennant or Eno or Thom Yorke as head of the academy make you feel better about the fact that Mark E Smith is unlikely ever to receive a Brit award (something that some blog readers consider a criminal injustice)? Your thoughts are welcomed.
