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UK Singer-songwriter Raye Sweeps Brit Awards

Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
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UK Singer-songwriter Raye Sweeps Brit Awards

Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
Raye had been nominated in a record seven categories. HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP

Rising star Raye on Saturday swept the UK's top music awards, setting a record for winning the most prizes in a single year.
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter scooped six awards including best artist, R&B act, new artist, song of the year for "Escapism" and album for "My 21st Century Blues", AFP said.
Her award for best songwriter was pre-announced.
Accepting the best new artist award she called the win "overwhelming", adding "this is wild".
"What is actually happening right now?" a delighted Raye told the audience at London's O2 arena.
"The artist I was three years ago would not believe the sight she is seeing today. I'm in control, I'm my own boss now," she declared.
She had made history even before the ceremony started by being nominated for a record seven prizes in one year.
The Londoner, whose real name is Rachel Keen, had been up against six other female artists out of the 10 shortlisted in the gender neutral best artist category following a controversy last year.
Not a single female artist ended up being shortlisted in the category in 2023 after the merging of the best female and male artist categories for the first time a year earlier.
That led Brit Awards chairman Damian Christian to complain about a "disappointing lack of female representation", blaming a dearth of eligible 2022 releases by big female stars.
This year the shortlist was extended from five to 10 and included Dua Lipa and Jessie Ware, newcomer Olivia Dean, and Mercury Prize winners Little Simz and Arlo Parks, as well as Raye.
- Rocky road -
This year's awards also saw prizes go to Dua Lipa for best pop act, US singer-songwriter SZA for international artist and US indie supergroup Boygenius for international group.
Kylie Minogue was honored with the Brit Awards global icon prize.
Minogue also took to the stage, with other artists performing including DJ Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa, Nigerian Afrobeats star Rema and Raye.
Her Brits triumph follows a sometimes difficult path to the top.
Before making it as a solo artist she wrote songs for big names such as Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Little Mix.
She had also had success as a guest artist on dance tracks.
But after being signed by record company Polydor, creative disagreements led to a tearful online post in which she accused the label of refusing to release her debut album.
Polydor subsequently released her from her contract and she went on to critical and commercial success as an independent artist.
Her track "Escapism" featuring American rapper 070 Shake took off on TikTok and scored a UK number one hit just over a year ago.
The single, the third from her debut album, also topped singles charts in Denmark and Ireland and entered the top 10 in 20 countries.
The Brit Awards were first held in 1977. The event is run by British Phonographic Industry, a trade association that represents the UK music industry.

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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.