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Music in the News
Thursday 17 January 2002
Vocabulary from the world of music. Listen to and read the story then find explanations of difficult words below.

 Dido has been nominated for four awards
Brits nominations met with dismay
Summary: The nominations for the most prestigious pop music awards in the UK, the Brit Awards, announced earlier this week, have been met with dismay by some of the experts. They say some of the artists, nominated as newcomers, have been performing for years.
  
The News Listen
 
 This year's Brits nominations have been announced, but some people are saying they're 'a Brit of a joke'! Artists are popping up in the same categories - or being nominated as newcomers, although they've already been around for a while.

Atomic Kitten have been nominated as best newcomers for the second year running. Dido is also up for best newcomer, although last year she was nominated for best female artist. So what makes either of them so new?

Dido's album 'No Angel' and Craig David's 'Born to Do It' have also been given second chances, after losing out to Coldplay for best album in 2001.

Pop insiders are also asking why artists such as Britney, Madonna, and U2 are not even up for one nomination, even though they've sold lots of records.

The awards take place on 20th February.

 
  
The WordsListen 
 'a Brit of a joke'
this made-up expression is a pun, or play on words. The common expression is 'a bit of a joke' which means 'ridiculous' or 'not very sensible'. And so, 'a Brit of a joke' is used to say that some people don't think this year's Brits nominations have been made in a sensible way

 
  
 popping up
appearing

 
  
 been around for a while
been performing for some time now

 
  
 for the second year running
for two years in succession; one year after the other

 
  
 up for
here - selected, nominated

 
  
 given second chances
given another opportunity to achieve success after failing the first time

 
  
 losing out to
being overcome by

 
  
 pop insiders
people who are closely involved in pop music business and know more about it than others

 
  
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