Ed Sheeran And Sam Smith Lead Brit Award Nominations (And Hozier Is In There Too!)

It's been a day for award announcements with confirmation of the Oscar nominations quickly followed by the shortlist for this year's Brit Awards. The nominees for the annual music awards were revealed this evening, with Hozier flying the flag for Ireland with a nomination in the International Male Solo Artist category. It had previously been confirmed that James Bay will receive the Critics' Choice award on the night and there were few surprises contained in today's announcement. The winners will be unveiled at London's o2 Arena on Wednesday February 25th. BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST Damon Albarn Ed Sheeran George Ezra Paolo Nutini Sam Smith BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST Ella Henderson FKA Twigs Jessie Ware Lily Allen Paloma Faith BRITISH GROUP Alt-J Clean Bandit Coldplay One Direction Royal Blood BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ACT Chvrches FKA Twigs George Ezra Royal Blood Sam Smith BRITISH SINGLE Calvin Harris – Summer Clean Bandit FT Jess Glynne – Rather Be Duke Dumont F Jax Jones – I Got U Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud Ella Henderson – Ghost George Ezra – Budapest Mark Ronson FT Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk Route 94 FT Jess Glynne – My Love Sam Smith – Stay With Me Sigma – Nobody To Love MASTERCARD BRITISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR Alt-J – This Is All Yours Ed Sheeran – X George Ezra – Wanted On Voyage Royal Blood – Royal Blood Sam Smith – In The Lonely Hour BRITISH PRODUCER OF THE YEAR Alison Goldfrapp & Will Gregory Flood Jake Gosling Paul Epworth INTERNATIONAL MALE SOLO ARTIST Beck Hozier Jack White John Legend Pharrell Williams BRITISH ARTIST VIDEO OF THE YEAR Calvin Harris – Summer Charli XCX – Boom Clap Duke Dumont FT Jax Jones – I Got U Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud Mark Ronson FT Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk One Direction – You & I Rita Ora – I Will Never Let You Down Route 94 FT Jess Glynne – My Love Sam Smith – Stay With Me Sigma – Nobody To Love INTERNATIONAL FEMALE SOLO ARTIST Beyonce Lana Del Rey Sia St Vincent Taylor Swift INTERNATIONAL GROUP 5 Seconds of Summer Black Keys First Aid Kit Foo Fighters The War On Drugs