Voting for the 2011 Brit Awards opened earlier this week.

The ballot isn’t public, but we’ve learned that one of the artists listed for consideration is Gil-Scott Heron. He’s up for the Best International Newcomer Award, 40 years afters his career began. Bizarre as this might be, it certainly says something about the freshness of the sparse, quietly moving I’m New Here, his most recent album, which was released on XL and has since been reworked by Jamie xx in full.

Unbelievably, this is the first time Heron has been up for a major music award of any kind.

The awards ceremony and announcement of winners is set to take place on February 15, 2011.