Outstanding Song Collection

Kamille

Kamille’s songwriting career started with a bang, and has carried on with a seemingly bottomless supply of bangers.

Ever since she burst onto the scene in 2012 by co-writing a Number One single, The Saturdays’ What About Us, the artist formerly known as Camille Purcell has had her fingerprints all over British pop music’s finest moments.

So, it’s fitting that Kamille – shortlisted for Songwriter Of The Year at the 2021 Ivors – should go one better this year and pick up this award. Because her collection of songs has become one of the truly outstanding catalogues of the 21st century.

In the decade since her breakout, she has helped the likes of Jessie J, JLS, Ella Henderson and Olly Murs maximise their potential, while also working on some of pop’s landmark records, including Dua Lipa’s bonafide classic Future Nostalgia album.

And some of Kamille’s songwriting relationships have gone deep: her work with Little Mix helped turned The X Factor winners into a global pop phenomenon with songs across their career such as Black Magic, Power, Shout Out To My Ex and Think About Us. And her association with Mabel has helped catapult the singer to superstardom on the back of irresistible hits such as Mad Love, Boyfriend and Don’t Call Me Up.

Certainly, the Top 40 would be a much duller place without Kamille’s presence. A consummate collaborator, she is one of the very few hitmakers to have co-written back-to-back chart-toppers in the form of Jess Glynne’s I’ll Be There and Clean Bandit featuring Demi Lovato’s Solo.

Add in her own burgeoning solo career, her willingness to mentor up-and-coming writers and artists, her own label and publishing company and her importance as a music industry voice, and you know there are plenty more big bangs and even bigger bangers to come.

PRS for Music Icon Award

Tim Booth, Saul Davies, Jim Glennie, Larry Gott & Mark Hunter

James’ 1991 breakthrough single may have implored us all to Sit Down – advice that audiences from the Hacienda dancefloor to the Glastonbury leylines have delightedly followed ever since. But, when it comes to songwriting excellence, this beloved Manchester band has never been afraid to stand up and be counted.

One of the most enduring and successful UK bands of their – or, indeed, any other – generation, James may have started out making sparse, literate indie-pop on their 1986 debut album, Stutter. But the brilliance of their core songwriting team –frontman Tim Booth, fellow co-founder and bassist Jim Glennie, keyboard player Mark Hunter, violinist Saul Davies and former guitarist Larry Gott – has seen them successfully try their hand at everything from rave-influenced euphoria (1990’s Gold Mother) to arena-friendly rock anthems (1997’s Whiplash) to spliced-up electronica (2021’s All The Colours Of You).

But whatever they sound like, James’ maverick spirit is always retained, meaning that – almost uniquely for a band with a 40-year history – they remain strangers to the nostalgia circuit, instead constantly merrily pushing at the margins of their musical world.

That’s why, over the years, they’ve come up with songs as distinct as 1985’s Hymn From A Village, 1989’s Come Home, 1997’s She’s A Star and 2021’s Wherever It Takes Us, but rendered them all utterly irresistible. That’s why Tim Booth’s enigmatic, intelligent lyrics will always demand devotion and provoke contemplation. And that’s why ground-breaking producers from Brian Eno to Flood to Jacknife Lee queue up to work with a band whose open-minded approach to writing and recording is legendary.

And that’s why, when the members of this most treasured band step onto the stage at this year’s Ivors in acknowledgement of the outstanding contribution their songs have made to British music, everyone will ignore their 1991 exhortations. And give them a standing ovation.