Songwriter of the Year with Amazon Music And the

Nominees are ...

Since the shortlist for the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter Of The Year was reintroduced two years ago, the annual nominations have become a key indicator of the health of great British songwriting.

And in 2023, the list – with the nominated writers selected by an Ivors Academy jury and voted on by Professional tier Academy members – reveals that British music is thriving across all styles and genres.

Choosing just one winner from such an eclectic raft of nominees will be a far from easy task for those voters, given that each and every one of the candidates would be a more than worthy winner.

But whoever ultimately walks away with the prize, The Ivors crowd will be able to celebrate a year when British music really found its range.

Look at CENTRAL CEE for example. The man who rapped “I’m living a movie, but it ain’t scripted” on his Retail Therapy a big screen blockbuster.

Having started the year with the Top 40 hit, Daily Duppy, he went on to chart no fewer than 11 songs on the UK Top 100 during 2022, a remarkable achievement usually beyond even the most established artists and writers.

His collaboration with fellow nominee YOUNG CHENCS has proved to be one of the UK’s most successful writing partnerships of recent years and, certainly, the hits and acclaim just kept on coming in 2022.

Central Cee emerged as a new, authentic UK hip-hop superstar. And, whatever happens at the ceremony, you can expect his script to keep evolving – all the way from Shepherd’s Bush to Hollywood.

Coming from a rather different place is FLORENCE WELCH. Few artists are still hitting new heights when they get to their fifth album, but Florence + The Machine – the brainchild of singer and songwriter Welch – continue to astound and amaze, 14 years after the release of their debut album.

Indeed, Dance Fever became perhaps the most critically acclaimed of Welch’s albums, and also one of her most successful. It debuted at Number One on the UK Albums Chart – the fourth of her records to do so – and featured in the year’s Top 100 best-sellers.

But beyond the commercial success, Dance Fever is an artistic triumph and Welch remains one of the few modern artists capable of sustaining such an immersive, expansive experience over the long term.

And that’s why it’s clear that, even after all the achievements, Florence + The Machine are just getting started.

Awards

Meanwhile, pop phenomenon HARRY STYLES has come a long way fast. The incredible global success enjoyed by One Direction would represent a high-water mark in 99.9% of careers, but Styles’ remarkable solo success has put even that megastardom, relatively speaking, in the shade.

The stats behind Styles’ third album, Harry’s House, speak for themselves. The lead single from the record, As It Was, was written with fellow nominee KID HARPOON – aka Thomas Hull, co-writer of all but one of the album’s tracks – as well as Tyler Johnson, and debuted at Number One on both sides of the Atlantic, staying there for 10 weeks in the UK and a scarcely believable 15 weeks in the US.

Styles dominated the entire chart year, finishing 2022 with the UK’s biggest single and biggest album. But there is much more to this hitmaking duo than mere numbers. Far from being a short-term, hit-focused operation, Harpoon and Styles have built a long-term relationship across three albums, forming an unbreakable bond and an uncanny understanding in a fitting tribute to the old school way of working.

Proof that this is one natural pop phenomenon that is here to stay.

Meanwhile, alternative British music has also been having a significant moment.

Look at The 1975 who, appropriately enough for a band named after a year, had an exceptional 12 months. Driven by principal songwriters, drummer GEORGE DANIEL and frontman MATTY HEALY, they have long been one of the most provocative and innovative groups around. But in 2022, The 1975 enjoyed a true annus mirabilis.

Their fifth album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, peaked at Number One in the UK – maintaining their 100% record of topping the chart with studio albums – and also became a huge hit around the world.

But they also mastered the art of extending the record’s lifetime, as the songs they’d crafted so skilfully in Electric Lady and Real World studios inserted themselves into the pop culture mindset in a way few bands have been able to manage in the modern, easy-come, easy-go musical environment.

In all, the band spun six singles from the album, which became one of the UK’s Top 100 bestsellers of last year, while The 1975’s masterful live shows continue to beguile everyone who sees them.

So, 2022 was a very good trip around the sun for The 1975. But their songs have many, many more good years ahead of them.

As do Wet Leg. Anyone who has visited the Isle Of Wight on holiday will know that the short ferry ride across the Solent constitutes a form of virtual time travel, transporting you back to the great British seaside’s gloriously unspoilt past.

And the island’s most famous new music act is also something of a throwback to a golden age. The global success of the band – led by singer-guitarists and songwriters RHIAN TEASDALE and HESTER CHAMBERS – has evoked memories of when the UK’s sparky indie-rock bands ruled the world. And it has also shown the duo to be consummate songwriters, effortlessly conjuring up anthems to compete with anything the more commercial world has to offer.

As you might expect from a band from one of Britain’s sunniest holiday locations, for Wet Leg, right now, songwriting life really is a beach.

As it is for all of The Ivors’ fab five contenders. Only one of them can walk away with the title Songwriter Of The Year. But whoever it may be, you can be sure the UK’s reputation for producing an astounding array of distinctive talent will have been further enhanced.

Variety, after all is the spice of life.