The winners of the Producer of the Year and Songwriter of the Year categories at the 2023 BRIT Awards have been revealed.
The 2023 Producer of the Year Award goes to David Guetta, while the Songwriter of the Year Award winner is Kid Harpoon, co-writer and co-producer of Harry Styles‘ third album ‘Harry’s House’.
READ MORE: The 10 best moments in BRIT Awards history
Guetta, who will perform on the show alongside Becky Hill and Ella Henderson, is also nominated for International Song of the Year for his track with Bebe Rexha ‘I’m Good’.
“I am very honoured to receive ‘Producer of the Year’,” he said. “I have always felt a strong connection to British music and culture. The UK music scene is full of world class artists and producers so to be recognised like this means a lot to me. Thank you so much!”
The Songwriter of the Year award, meanwhile, was introduced in 2022 with Ed Sheeran as the inaugural recipient. Kid Harpoon boasts writing credits for artists including Lizzo, Florence + The Machine, Miley Cyrus and Jessie Ware, and has written on all three of Harry Styles’ studio albums.
Styles’ track ‘As It Was’, co-written by Kid Harpoon, was the UK’s biggest selling single of 2022 and recently won a Grammy for Record Of The Year. ‘Harry’s House’ also won Album Of The Year at the 2023 Grammys.
Kid Harpoon said: “To be acknowledged by the BRITs this year for songwriting, a beautiful and complex craft, is unbelievable. It’s a dream come true to create for a living, I cannot wait to celebrate with everyone on Saturday.”
@davidguetta is the winner of Producer of the Year!
Catch his performance Saturday on ITV1 at 8.30pm GMT (UK) and https://t.co/QjEmDoNxZW (International) #BRITs pic.twitter.com/cIgMh5EFhl
— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) February 10, 2023
This year’s BRITs takes place on Saturday, February 11 at London’s O2, where Lewis Capaldi, Harry Styles, Stormzy, Lizzo, Wet Leg, Sam Smith, Kim Petras and Cat Burns will all perform.
Hosted by comedian Mo Gilligan for the second year, the BRITs will air on ITV 1 again for the 30th time. Clara Amfo, Maya Jama and Roman Kemp will all return to host the red carpet show.
You can see the full list of nominees for the BRITs 2023 here.
This year’s BRIT Awards has faced criticism due to the UK Artist Of The Year category being made up of all male nominees, with Central Cee, Fred again.., George Ezra, Stormzy and Harry Styles making the shortlist.
Sam Smith, who is non-binary and called for the introduction of gender-neutral categories in 2021, said that it’s “a shame” to see only male nominees, telling The Sunday Times: “Things are moving forward, but it’s obvious it’s not there yet. From seeing that [Best Artist] list, there is still a long way to go.”
It comes after the awards axed its British Female and British Male categories in 2022 in favour of gender-neutral prizes.
Artists including Mahalia have also hit out at the lack of R&B representation within the Pop/R&B category.
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