The BRIT Awards 2025 has revealed the demographic breakdown of its Voting Academy.
The Academy of around 1,300 members is responsible for determining the shortlists and the overall winners of categories including Artist Of The Year, Mastercard Album Of The Year and Best New Artist. A full analysis across gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability and neurodiversity has been made available ahead of voting opening at 1pm today (December 6).
The BRIT Awards 2025 with Mastercard will take place Saturday, March 1, live on ITV1 and ITVX from The O2 arena in London. The winners trophy has this year been designed by British-Nigerian multi-disciplinary artist Gabriel Moses.
Since 2017, the Voting Academy has undergone an annual refresh to ensure relevance and diversity across its participants, aimed at achieving a balanced split of women and men, as well as representation of members who identify outside the gender binary. It also seeks to ensure that at least a quarter of those who vote identify as being from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background.
The Voting Academy is annually composed of individuals drawn from across the music community and media, including artists, managers, music & arts writers, producers, publishers, record labels, retailers and more.
The 2025 BRITs Voting Academy (based on latest available data)
Out of 1,650 invitations, 1,338 have taken up the invitation and been successfully registered to be on the BRITs Voting Academy for 2025.
The Voting Academy breaks down into the following 15 sectors across the industry:
Artists/Creators (28 = 2.09%)
Affiliates/Trade Associations (22 = 1.64%)
Business Services (180 = 13.45%)
Concert Promoters / Venues (51 = 3.81%)
Digital Music Services (52 = 3.89%)
Independent record companies (121 = 9.04%)
Publishers (12 = 0.9%)
Managers (108 = 8.7%)
Major record companies x 3 (272 = 20.33%)
Music Hubs (20 = 1.49%)
Physical Retailers (16 = 1.2%)
Press & Media - Print, Online, TV, Radio (365 = 27.28%)
Producers (58 = 4.33%)
Social Media (29 = 2.17%)
Each sector has a team of specialists who help The BRITs constantly maintain and review the list annually. Each year, once this long list has been refreshed, the BRITs formally invite people across all these sectors to join the Voting Academy and to vote at the appropriate time.
This year there was an average decrease in “prefer not to say” responses of 67% across all diversity monitoring questions. 49% of this year’s Voting Academy identify as female/woman (45% in 2024), with 46% identifying as male/man (42% in 2024), 1% identifying as non-binary and 1% preferring to self-describe.
For 2025, inclusive adjustments were made regarding how ethnicity was captured, and as a result, data has been collected on East and South East Asian representation for the first time. This year 26% of Voting Academy Members are from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background, compared to 24% in 2024. 11% identify as Black, 4% identify as South Asian, 1% identify as East and South East Asian, 9% identified as from Mixed or Multiple Ethnicities and 1% selected ‘Any Other Ethnic Background’. 69% of the Voting Academy identify as White.
29% of those that have registered are aged 25-34 (up from 27% in 2024), with 34% aged 35-44 (up from 29%). 20% are aged 45-44, 9% are aged 55-64, 2% are 65+ and 1% are 18-24.
73% identify as Heterosexual/Straight with 5% identifying as a Gay Man, 5% identifying as Bisexual, 3% identifying as Queer, 2% identifying as a Gay Woman/Lesbian and 2% identifying Pansexual, Questioning or Preferring to Self-describe.
5% of the 2024 Voting Academy consider themselves disabled (an increase of 2% compared to 2024) and 14% identify as neurodivergent (an increase of 4% compared to 2024).
This data – collected on registration – enables The BRITs to continue to review the Voting Academy membership annually in order to achieve a representative cross section.
A short video message from BPI CEO Dr Jo Twist OBE and BPI chair YolanDa Brown OBE DL will encourage responsibility when making their selections, and Academy members have also been offered conscious voting guidance.
The Academy, and the voting process, is overseen by Civica Election Services.
In a statement, Dr Jo Twist and YolanDa Brown said: “We continue to deepen our understanding of how to ensure a representative BRITs Voting Academy, which is now consistently more diverse and inclusive and it’s encouraging to see the number of Academy members selecting ‘prefer not to say’ has significantly decreased across all questions, suggesting they appreciate the importance of BRITs diversity monitoring. There is always more to do, but we continue to listen, learn and evolve as an Awards after every BRITs and we thank the academy voters for their support and expertise.”
The 2025 BRITs Voting Process and Categories
For each awards category, Voting Academy members select from a longlist of eligible entries, based on Official Charts Company criteria. The five genre awards – Alternative/Rock, Pop, R&B, Dance, Hip Hop/Grime/Rap – will be decided by a public vote.
1 Artist of the Year
2 Group of the Year
3 BRITs Rising Star
4 Best New Artist
5 Song of the Year with Mastercard
6 Mastercard Album of the Year
7 International Artist of the Year
8 International Song of the Year
9 International Group of the Year
10 Alternative / Rock Act
11 Pop Act
12 R&B Act
13 Dance Act
14 Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act
15 Producer of the Year (honorary award as decided by a separate expert panel)
16 Songwriter of the Year (honorary award as decided by a separate expert panel)
The winner of The BRITs Rising Star award was yesterday revealed to be Myles Smith.
Further campaign announcements will be made in the coming months.
Mastercard’s headline sponsorship is now in its 27th year. ITV remains as official broadcaster for the 32nd year, and The O2 arena will host The BRITs for its 14th year.
