Lily’s 150-1 For The Four-Timer

The bookies at Ladbrokes are offering 150-1 against Lily Allen picking up all four Brits she’s nominated for.

The mouthy 21-year-old daughter of actor Keith Allen has been short-listed for best female solo, best British album, best British breakthrough act and best British single ("Smile"), a category that will be decided by a live vote from commercial radio listeners.

Five acts with longer track records than Allen – Muse, Snow Patrol, Corinne Bailey Rae, James Morrison, and Gnarls Barkley – have three nominations each.

Gnarls Barkley, which was responsible for one of the year’s best-selling singles, "Crazy," has three nominations in the international categories.

Bob Dylan, Justin Timberlake, Scissor Sisters, Beyoncé, The Flaming Lips, and Red Hot Chili Peppers are other international stars in the running for honours.

Universal comes out on top of the record companies with 22 nominations (33.8 percent), with the rest of the majors slotting behind in roughly the same order as their market shares would suggest – even some of the percentages are close.

Sony-BMG’s acts have 14 nominations (21.5 percent), Warner acts have been short-listed 12 times (18.4 percent) and EMI acts have 11 chances of winning (16.9 percent).

The EMI percentage is about four points higher than market share, which – if it could have been replicated in the real world – would probably have been more than enough to save chief exec Alain Levy and vice chairman David Munns from getting the boot.

What makes the beleaguered British major’s position look even better, if only as far as awards go, is that seven of those 11 nominations are held by Allen (4) and Bailey Rae (3) – although they’re up against each other in British female solo, British single and British breakthrough act, the winner of which will be chosen by BBC Radio 1 listeners.

The indies – in this case Beggars (3) Domino (2) and Rough Trade (1) – have six nominations, which is a little less than a 10 percent slice of the pie.

Outgoing British Phonographic Industry chairman Peter Jamieson, who’ll clear his desk and retire two weeks after this year’s awards ceremony, said the current strength of British talent is highlighted by the number of nominations that have gone to acts that have only released one album.

The Brit Awards will be held at Earls Court in London on February 14th.