The last time I looked, people other than the native British (whatever they are) had folk music as well, and these things are simply called the Folk Awards. So the scandal is not that somebody playing American music has been nominated, but that all the other traditional musics you can hear played by people living within the BBC's regions aren't. They also aren't called "the folk club awards", so they're not limited to whatever it is that people play in those specialist gatherings. Whether or not people like singer/songwriters should be included or whether you apply the old Ewan MacColl rule that people should only be allowed to perform music from their own tradition are both other arguments for different sets of semantics and nitpicking. However, surely - at a minimum - anybody living and playing a traditional music within the UK to a high standard and decent public profile should be eligible?

So the question shouldn't be "why is Sunjay Brayne included", it's "why aren't for example Juldeh Camara, Seckou Keita. The Krar Collective, Mor Karbasi etc included?" They are all first class traditional folk musicians or singers living, recording and performing in the UK, and they are always excluded.