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Kaisers, Blunt head nominations for Brit music awards
Kaiser Chiefs and James Blunt led the field with five nominations apiece when the shortlist was announced on Tuesday for the Brit Awards, the British music industry's big night of the year.
Hot on their tails with four nominations was Coldplay, whose third album "X&Y" was one of the biggest releases of 2005.
Next in line with three nominations were KT Tunstall, the Scottish singer-songwriter whose debut album has sold 1 million copies in Britain alone, and Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand.
In the international award categories, the leaders with three nominations each were Montreal rockers Arcade Fire and Madonna, whose album "Confessions on a Dance Floor" has been a chart success on both sides of the Atlantic.
But Madonna faces stiff competition in the fight for accolade of International Female Solo Artist of the Year from Bjork, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey and Missy Elliot.
In Britain, album sales fell by 2.7 percent last year, although the success of homegrown artists such as Blunt, Tunstall and Robbie Williams ensured it was not as sharp as the 7.2 percent decline in the United States.
Yet many British acts concede that cracking the key U.S. market is still a prime objective.
"In the golden era of the 60s, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones dominated the American charts," said Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs.
"Today, the United States is a much tougher nut to crack for British artists," he told Reuters before performing at the nominations ceremony in London.
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