The best in British music for the past year are announced in London.

 LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JANUARY 10, 2013) (REUTERS) -  It may have been dwarfed by the Oscar nominations on Thursday (January 10), but the Brit nominations still went ahead, highlighting the best in music in the United Kingdom.

Emeli Sande was last year's Brit Awards Critics' Choice winner and went on to sing at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and has achieved massive commercial success. Alt J on the other hand have won more critical acclaim and won the Mercury Music prize earlier this year.

Talking to Reuters on the carpet at the Savoy Hotel in London, Thom Green from Alt J said: "We can't believe it. We've only just found out we're up for three Brit awards and it's just mad. We've never thought of ourselves as a Brit Awards band, we thought we were more of an art school band so it's kind of crazy but we're happy."

Emeli Sande passed on this year's Critics' Choice award to Tom Odell who performed his hit single 'Another Love' at the event and was the first to get his hands on the Damian Hirst designed Brit Award gong.

Muse, Plan B, Ben Howard, Coldplay, Paloma Faith, Olly Murs, Rita Ora and Jessie Ware were all announced to have two nominations each.

Jessie Ware, who also performed at the event, was overwhelmed by the news. "It's really amazing. It's my first year and I'm just working out what I'm doing and to be up for two is just great." However, she didn't have high hopes for her two nominations when the award show comes around in February, saying, "I'm not going to win either so I'm not having a preference on anything. I'm just happy to have a table."

Rita Ora also attended the nominations event. She's nominated for two awards, both in the British Single category, for the songs "R.I.P" which she recorded with Tinie Tempah and "Hot Right Now" on which she did the vocals for DJ Fresh, also known as Daniel Stein.

"I really really love Rita as a person as much as an artist, she's a really lovely girl and works really really hard and it's such a great feeling to see her doing well," DJ Fresh told Reuters. "She's kind of like the swan in the stable like she's going to be massive and she just needed that platform and I guess 'Hot Right Now' was."

Once again the Brit Awards will be held at the O2 Arena in London. This year, the awards will be announced on Wednesday February 20th.