The Brit Award for British Pop Act is an award given by the
British Phonographic Industry (BPI), an organisation which represents record companies and artists in the
United Kingdom.[1] The accolade is presented at the
Brit Awards, an annual celebration of
British and international music.[2] The winners and nominees were initially determined by the Brit Awards voting academy with over one-thousand members comprising
record labels,
publishers,
managers,
agents, media, and previous winners and nominees, [3] but starting with the
42nd Brit Awards ceremony, the award is voted by fans.[4]
Boy band
Five are the first winners of the category, while
Westlife and
Dua Lipa have the most wins, with two. The category was exclusively won by bands until 2006, when
James Blunt became the first solo artist to receive the award.
S Club 7 hold the record for most nominations without a win, with three. The current holder of the award is
Dua Lipa, who won in 2024.
History
The award was first presented as Best British Pop Act at the
2000 Brit Awards and was retired in
2006.
In 2021, it was announced that the category had been revived and renamed Best British Pop/R&B Act following the removal of gendered categories. This new iteration of the award was first presented at the
42nd Brit Awards and the winner is voted for by the public on
TikTok alongside the three other genre categories (
Rock/Alternative Act,
Dance Act and
Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act).[5]
For the
2024 Brit Awards, it was announced that Best British Pop Act would return as it split from R&B and the award for
Best British R&B Act. The change follows criticism from many artists in the R&B community around the lack of representation in the category.[6]