BRIT Awards 2024: The numbers behind the Song of the Year nominees from RAYE to Calvin Harris

The BRITs are coming!

Yesterday, the nominations for the 2024 BRIT Awards, which will this year take place on March 2 at London's O2 Arena, were revealed. 

RAYE was the name on everyone's lips, scoring a record-setting seven nominations, the most for any artist in a single year ever. Her impressive list of nods - including Artist of the Year and, the big one, Mastercard British Album of the Year - also takes into account two tracks in contention for one of the night's most important awards, Song of the Year.

To celebrate, we've counted the numbers and crunched the data on all 15 tracks nominated for the BRITs Song of the Year, which included 7 UK Number 1 singles and hundreds and millions of streams.

Let's get stuck in. 

15. Firebabe
Artist: Stormzy ft. Debbie
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 5
Total UK chart units: 262,000

A surprising contender for 2022's Official Christmas Number 1, Firebabe saw Stormzy team up with rising R&B vocalist Debbie for the biggest hit from his third album (and major label debut), This Is What I Mean.

14. Who Told You
Artist: J Hus ft. Drake
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 2
Total UK chart units: 492,000

J Hus linked up with one of the biggest artists in music, period, for Who Told You. It became the Stratford MC's highest-charting single yet in the UK, reaching Number 2, and was actually a multi-week Number 1 on the Official Afrobeats Chat to boot. It preceded J Hus's comeback record Beautiful & Brutal Yard, his second UK Number 1 album. 

13. Dancing Is Healing
Artist: Rudimental, Charlotte Plank & Vibe Chemistry
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 5
Total UK chart units: 545,000

A very well-deserved chart comeback for Rudimental here, who linked up with producer Vibe Chemistry and dance vocalist Charlotte Plank for this Top 10 hit all about finding your peace on the dancefloor. 

12. Wish You The Best
Artist: Lewis Capaldi
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 555,000

Lewis Capaldi's fifth UK Number 1 single (and third chart-topper from best-selling second album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent) saw his equal the all-time tallys of artists like David Bowie, Beyoncé and Cheryl (!). 

11. LET GO
Artist: Central Cee
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 6
Total UK chart units: 560,000

While we will be seeing Cench further down the list, his 2022 single LET GO, which samples Passenger's 2012 hit Let Her Go, gives the UK rapper a solo nomination for song of the year. He joins RAYE as the only artist with multiple nominations here. 

10. Strangers
Artist: Kenya Grace
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 590,000

Kenya Grace entered the Official Charts record books when her breakthrough major label single Strangers hit Number 1 last autumn. The singer, songwriter and producer became only the second woman ever to have a self-written and produced track reach the top of the Official Singles Chart. The other? Kate Bush, of course.

9. Eyes Closed
Artist: Ed Sheeran
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 632,000

Ed's acoustic-led Subtract record was supposed to be a low-key affair, but he still managed to squeeze a landmark 14th UK Number 1 single with its lead single. Eyes Closed was something of an exception to Subtract as a whole, being the only track on the album on which Ed worked with hitmaker to the stars Max Martin. 

8. Prada
Artist: cassö, RAYE & D-Block Europe
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 2
Total UK chart units: 694,000 

They want Prada! When DJ cassö remixed Ferrari Horses, a D-Block Europe song with an eye-catching feature from RAYE, he managed to breathe brand new life into the track. A sleeper hit in the UK, Prada was held off the top spot throughout the Christmas period, but proved to be a long-standing hit nonetheless, spending 17 weeks inside the Top 10.

7. React
Artist: Switch Disco & Ella Henderson
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 4
Total UK chart units: 722,000

Now that's what we call a reaction. Switch Disco's team-up with dance queen Ella Henderson was initially given a big boost after being featured on last summer's Love Island, before being embraced by the wider British public. A Number 4 hit, it became Switch Disco's first UK Top 10 entry...and now their first BRIT nomination to boot!

6. Dance The Night (from Barbie: The Album)
Artist: Dua Lipa
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 751,000

Hi Barbie! Dua Lipa may be plotting the release of her rave-heavy third album right now, but her big summer hit took us straight to Barbie Land. She may have lost out on an Oscar nomination last week to Billie Eilish and...uh...Ryan Gosling, but Dua's vibey Dance The Night became her fourth UK Number 1 single, helping her join a pantheon of pop legends including Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and Geri Halliwell. 

5. boy's a liar
Artist: PinkPantheress
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 2
Total UK chart units: 1 million

PinkPantheress' big breakout moment was in the works for a long time, since she won the BBC Sound Of...poll in 2022. That hit finally came in the form of the feather-light boy's a liar, which got a big boost from a viral remix featuring US rapper Ice Spice. 

4. Messy in Heaven
Artist: venbee & goddard.
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 3
Total UK chart units: 1.1 million

It does indeed get a little messy in heaven! Venbee's first UK Top 10 single was a classic drum'n'bass record in the making. After hitting Number 3, Venbee has gone on to collaborate with Rudimental, while producer goddard. has just issused a brand-new banging DnB tune with Cat Burns. 

3. Miracle
Artist: Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.2 million

Oontz oontz, baby. Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding are no strangers to collaboration, and their third link-up together was their biggest yet. A mammoth hit in the UK - 8 non-consecutive weeks at Number 1 speaks for itself - and ended 2023 as one of the year's Top 5 biggest tracks.

2. Sprinter
Artist: Dave & Central Cee
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.3 million

Dave and Cench pulled up in the Sprinter for their braggadocios banger all about living the high life. Twisty lyrics undercut with some genuine humour saw Sprinter settle into the fast lane last year. It became Dave's third Number 1, and the first for Central Cee. Breaking numerous records on release; Sprinter received the highest first-week streams for a UK rap track in UK chart history, and was also the first UK rap song to spend 10 weeks at Number 1. Even better still, Sprinter was named the Official Song of the Summer for 2023.

1. Escapism. 
Artist: RAYE ft. 070 Shake
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.4 million

Could it have been anything else? We have well and truly entered the Age of RAYE. Jagged electronic banger Escapism.'s track to Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart was true pop justice in action, and made all the sweeter that RAYE's first chart-topper came just as she broke out of the major label system as an independent artist. 

Escapism. is by the far the biggest of all of the Song of the Year nominees; with 1.4 million chart units to its name.

The 2024 BRITs will be broadcast live on ITV1 and ITVX on Saturday March 2 2024 from 8:30PM.