Empire of the Sun and Daniel Merriweather Get Brit Award Nominations

Empire of the Sun appears to stand in good stead to bag a prize based on the number of ARIA awards they scooped up recently. At the Brit Awards, the band will go up against the likes of Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Animal Collective for international breakthrough act. They will also go head to head with Merriweather, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Animal Collective for best international album.

A win for Empire of the Sun would make them one of the few Australian acts, among them Crowded House, INXS and Kylie Minogue, to have won a Brit award.

Merriweather tweeted his excitement at being nominated for international breakthrough act after the nominations were announced. In contrast, Empire of the Sun front man Luke Steele was suitably offbeat when commenting on their nominations for international breakthrough act and international album for their debut album Walking On A Dream.

Steele, who will attend the February 16 award ceremony without his band mate Nick Littlemore, told AAP "the dream was the king for this record and it is becoming wilder and wilder as the sandman keeps cooking. This is a great honour; we are walking on a dream".