Coldplay looks to dominate this year's Brit Awards.

Credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press, J.P. Moczulski

Coldplay and Duffy are the top nominees for the Brit Awards, the U.K. equivalent of the Grammys.

Announced in London on Jan. 20, the Brits will be held Feb. 18 at Earl's Court Arena and will be hosted by Kylie Minogue, James Corden and Mathew Horne. Among the performers are Pet Shop Boys, U2, Kings of Leon, Duffy and Girls Aloud.

British acts are on a worldwide roll and in many ways, the Brit nominations resembled what we saw last month at the Grammy Award nominations when British acts dominated the four main categories. (We're clearly in the midst of another British invasion in the U.S.) In addition to British album of the year, Coldplay is up for Brits for British group, live act and single.

Welsh lass Duffy (look for our upcoming interview with her in coming days) is up for British album of the year, single, female solo act and breakthrough act

Adele (another artist we just talked to and will profile soon), Elbow and Scouting for Girls are up for three awards each.

We want to rave about British trio Scouting for Girls. When we were in London last February, we got a copy of the Brit Awards 2008 compilation and kept playing Scouting for Girls' irrepressibly catchy "She's So Lovely" over and over again. For power popsters, the song is close to perfect with its lilting chorus and crescendoing finale. We were thrilled when we heard the song used for the Vonage commercials here (as an instrumental bed only) and by ABC to promote "Ugly Betty's" return in January thinking that might mean the group's CD would be released here. We've asked both the label and the band's management if there are any plans to release Scouting for Girls' CD here. No answer yet, but we'll let you know if we hear something. In the meantime, we encourage you to check out the video on Youtube.
Four U.S. acts (Fleet Foxes, Killers, Kings of Leon and MGMT) vie for international album of the year alongside Australia's AC/DC.