British comedian and BRITs host, Mo Gilligan opens up about his responsibility to host the awards. Mo tells BBC Newsbeat that he believes it’s best for the “powers to be” to decide who is nominated. “My job is to host the proceedings, as opposed to give my opinions. This marks his second year hosting the BRIT Awards, as his first time as host was last year in 2022. The show has received criticism because of the lack of opportunities for women to win for best artist.

“I’m impartial,” he says. This also marks the second year for the best artist prize, as the BRITs replaced best male and female awards with one gender-neutral category in 2022. Mo remains aware of the constant criticisms and Newsbeat aren’t the first ones to bring the matter up.

Mark Savage, a BBC Music correspondent interviews Mo about the music industry as a whole. Mo says, “No-one gets into this industry being like, ‘I must win this award, I must be nominated for that’. “And the people that are watching it, the young kids who are like, ‘Oh, I want to be like Adele or Beyoncé, or Sam Smith, they just want to be like their first idols. This is a celebration of music first.”

Mo likes the fact that artists are speaking out, as he uses a lot of music in his routines. He tells Newsbeat, “They’re being heard and their opinions are being listened to. It’s nice to be a part of musicians who are using their platform to have an opinion on society and life.”

Regardless of criticisms or non-criticisms, all eyes are focused on Mo within a second when he’s on stage. He confessed that he’d be lying if he said that wasn’t nervous ahead of Saturday. “This is a big occasion for me and for so many people,” Mo says. “I think it’s nice to have some nerves you know, I think the day I don’t have any nerves is the day that this is too normal.”

Mo shares what he has learnt from last year’s BRIT Awards as a ‘first-timer’ host. He says that he will “probably be a bit calmer than last year” when he was “shouting a lot”. “What you could expect is a bit more controlled chaos on my behalf. I’m doing a suit change as well so I’m doing two different colours. He tells Newsbeat.

In all seriousness, Mo expressed that this experience as a host from last year’s awards shaped his confidence in this year’s awards. He says, “Last year, I wasn’t that confident in doing it but I’ve kind of got one under my belt now.”