# Brit Award for Best New Artist

The Brit Award for Best New Artist (previously Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act) is an award given by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), an organisation which represents record companies and artists in the United Kingdom. The accolade is presented at the Brit Awards, an annual celebration of British and international music. The winners and nominees are determined by the Brit Awards voting academy with over 1,000 members, which comprise record labels, publishers, managers, agents, media, and previous winners and nominees.
Throughout its tenure, the category has been known by a number of different names. Originally presented as two gendered categories in 1977, the inaugural recipients were Graham Parker and Julie Covington. The Human League were the first group to win the award. Paul Young and Lisa Stansfield were the first male and female solo artists to receive the combined award, winning in 1984 and 1990 respectively. In January 2023, Sam Ryder became the first Eurovision artist to be nominated in this category. The current holder of the award is The Last Dinner Party, who won in 2025.

## History

The award was first presented in 1977 as two awards: British Male Newcomer and British Female Newcomer which were won by Graham Parker and Julie Covington. When the Brit Awards was held for the second time in 1982, these categories were combined and rules were changed so that groups were also eligible. The inaugural recipients of the new British Newcomer award were The Human League. From 2003 to 2019, the award was presented as British Breakthrough Act. The award received its current name Best New Artist starting in 2020, bringing it in line with similar international awards such as the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Mabel and Dave are the only artists who have been nominated for this award more than once. Dave was nominated 2018 and 2020 and Mabel was nominated in both 2019 and 2020.

## Winners and nominees
### British Male/Female Newcomer (1977)

| Year | Recipient | Nominees |
| 1977 | Graham Parker | Heatwave (band) |
| 1977 | Julie Covington | Bonnie Tyler |

### British Newcomer (1982–2002)

| Year | Recipient | Nominees |
| 1982 | The Human League | Depeche Mode Linx Soft Cell Toyah Willcox |
| 1983 | Yazoo | ABC Culture Club Musical Youth |
| 1984 | Paul Young | Big Country Howard Jones Tracey Ullman Wham! |
| 1985 | Frankie Goes to Hollywood | Bronski Beat Nik Kershaw |
| 1986 | Go West | — |
| 1987 | The Housemartins | — |
| 1988 | Wet Wet Wet | Nominated |
| 1988 | Wet Wet Wet | Rick Astley The Christians Johnny Hates Jazz T'Pau |
| 1988 | Wet Wet Wet | Eliminated |
| 1988 | Wet Wet Wet | Black Curiosity Killed the Cat Living in a Box Mel and Kim Pepsi & Shirlie The Proclaimers Swing Out Sister |
| 1989 | Bros | — |
| 1990 | Lisa Stansfield | The Beautiful South Shakespears Sister Soul II Soul The Stone Roses |
| 1991 | Betty Boo | Beats International The Charlatans Happy Mondays The La's |
| 1992 | Beverley Craven | Cathy Dennis EMF Kenny Thomas Seal |
| 1993 | Tasmin Archer | Dina Carroll KWS Take That Undercover |
| 1994 | Gabrielle | Apache Indian Jamiroquai Shara Nelson Suede |
| 1995 | Oasis | Echobelly Eternal PJ & Duncan Portishead |
| 1996 | Supergrass | Black Grape Cast Elastica Tricky |
| 1997 | Kula Shaker | Alisha's Attic Ash Babybird The Bluetones Lighthouse Family Longpigs Mansun Mark Morrison Skunk Anansie Space Spice Girls |
| 1998 | Stereophonics | All Saints Beth Orton Conner Reeves Embrace Finley Quaye Olive Roni Size & Reprazent Shola Ama Talkin Loud Travis |
| 1999 | Belle and Sebastian | Another Level Billie Piper Cleopatra Cornershop Five Gomez Hinda Hicks Propellerheads Steps |
| 2000 | S Club 7 | Groove Armada Honeyz Phats & Small The Wiseguys |
| 2001 | A1 | Artful Dodger Coldplay Craig David Toploader |
| 2002 | Blue | Atomic Kitten Elbow Gorillaz Mis-Teeq So Solid Crew Starsailor Tom McRae Turin Brakes Zero 7 |

### British Breakthrough Act (2003–2019)

| Year | Recipient | Nominees |
| 2003 | Will Young | The Coral Liberty X Ms. Dynamite The Streets |
| 2004 | Busted | The Darkness Dizzee Rascal Jamie Cullum Lemar |
| 2005 | Keane | Franz Ferdinand Joss Stone Natasha Bedingfield The Zutons |
| 2006 | Arctic Monkeys | James Blunt Kaiser Chiefs KT Tunstall The Magic Numbers |
| 2007 | The Fratellis | Corinne Bailey Rae James Morrison The Kooks Lily Allen |
| 2008 | Mika | Bat for Lashes Kate Nash Klaxons Leona Lewis |
| 2009 | Duffy | Adele The Last Shadow Puppets Scouting for Girls The Ting Tings |
| 2010 | JLS | Florence and the Machine Friendly Fires La Roux Pixie Lott |
| 2011 | Tinie Tempah | Ellie Goulding Mumford & Sons Rumer The xx |
| 2012 | Ed Sheeran | Anna Calvi Emeli Sandé Jessie J The Vaccines |
| 2013 | Ben Howard | Alt-J Jake Bugg Jessie Ware Rita Ora |
| 2014 | Bastille | Disclosure Laura Mvula London Grammar Tom Odell |
| 2015 | Sam Smith | Chvrches FKA Twigs George Ezra Royal Blood |
| 2016 | Catfish and the Bottlemen | James Bay Jess Glynne Wolf Alice Years & Years |
| 2017 | Rag'n'Bone Man | Anne-Marie Blossoms Skepta Stormzy |
| 2018 | Dua Lipa | Dave J Hus Loyle Carner Sampha |
| 2019 | Tom Walker | Ella Mai IDLES Jorja Smith Mabel |

### Best New Artist (2020–present)

| Year | Recipient | Nominees |
| 2020 | Lewis Capaldi | Aitch Dave Mabel Sam Fender |
| 2021 | Arlo Parks | Bicep Celeste Joel Corry Young T & Bugsey |
| 2022 | Little Simz | Central Cee Griff Joy Crookes Self Esteem |
| 2023 | Wet Leg | Kojey Radical Mimi Webb Rina Sawayama Sam Ryder |
| 2024 | Raye | Mahalia Olivia Dean PinkPantheress Yussef Dayes |
| 2025 | The Last Dinner Party | English Teacher Ezra Collective Myles Smith Rachel Chinouriri |