WELCOME TO THE IVORS 2024

Welcome to The Ivors with Amazon Music, the biggest celebration of songwriting and screen composition.

When trying to explain the irresistible allure of The Ivors, incoming Ivors Academy CEO, Roberto Neri turns to the tale of John Lennon.

“You can imagine how many awards that John Lennon won, but he gave them all away,” says Neri. “The only ones he ever kept were his Ivor Novellos. That was the one he really cared about.”

That same appeal is part of what drew Neri to “cross the floor” after a lifetime in music publishing at companies such as Believe, Downtown, Utopia and Bug Music, as well as the Music Publishers Association. He now joins The Ivors Academy’s Chair, Tom Gray, on the mission to champion songwriters and composers.

“My focus will be to continue the great work that’s already happening,” says Neri. “We’re here to recognise amazing talent, but also to ensure that we have a sustainable future for songwriters and composers.”

“Everyone in The Ivors room should be celebrating songwriters,” he adds. “Not just by presenting awards, but by ensuring they’ve got careers and can actually survive.”

Tom Gray welcomes Neri’s arrival as “a step change” for the Academy.

“We’re very lucky to find somebody with Roberto’s standing and experience,” says Gray. “His willingness to take up this role speaks of an organisation whose ambition has grown and that has become far more visible in the public debate.”

As well as the on-going fight for songwriters’ rights, there is, of course, the small matter of The Ivors, which Gray hails as “the biggest celebration of songwriting anywhere in the world”.

After last year’s revamp, inspired by the new partnership with Amazon Music (“They get it,” says Gray. “They appreciate the songwriter can be the story”), the duo say this year’s ceremony will be about “fine-tuning” last year’s innovations. Meanwhile, the later start time will help bring a new international audience to a ceremony with a soaring global profile.

But, ultimately, Neri and Gray want the world to know about all of the Academy’s work, as it celebrates its 80th year.

“The Ivors is the day that is publicly recognised,” says Neri. “But the job for me is to make sure I’m doing that all year round.”

The Ivors Academy has changed beyond all recognition since its launch, as the Composers Guild of Great Britain, in 1944. As Gray notes, The Ivors are “prestigious, but not elitist – and that’s really important”, while Neri says attendees this afternoon will see “a different face of The Ivors Academy than you did even five years ago”.

But some things at the Academy haven’t changed since the days when John Lennon was coveting recognition from his peers.

“We need to be the No.1 partner to all songwriters and composers,” says Neri. “It’s our only purpose. We’re not a business here to make money from them; we just want to enable songwriters and composers to have careers.”

“The rest of us, myself included, are employed and being paid because of their great work,” the CEO adds. “We should never forget that.”