Adele under fire as she declares 'I love being a woman' whilst winning gender-neutral Brit award

Adele has sparked controversy on social media after a comment she made at the Brit Awards.

The 33-year-old superstar has come under fire after declaring she 'loves being a woman' whilst scooping the gender-neutral Artist of the Year award on Tuesday night.

This year the annual music awards abolished its categories usually split by gender, such as British female solo artist and British male solo artist.

Instead, every award is now gender-neutral to recognise artists “solely for their music and work, rather than how they choose to identify or as others may see them”.

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Adele dominated last night's Brits after taking home three awards, including Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Artist of the Year.

She is the only solo artist to have won Album of the Year three times – with only the bands Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys achieving the same success.

During her speech at London's O2 Arena claiming her final award, Adele said: "“I love being an artist I really do, and I genuinely can’t believe that it’s my job."

After encouraging young artists, she added: “Also, I would say, I understand why the name of this award has changed but I really love being a woman and being a female artist. I do. I’m really proud of us, I really, really am.”

In the past, the Brit Awards has faced pressure to remove its male and female-specific awards.

Last year after announcing it will introduce new gender-neutral categories, a spokesmen for the Brits said the artists should be celebrated "solely for their music and work, rather than how they choose to identify or as others may see them, as part of The Brits/ commitment to evolving the show to be as inclusive and as relevant