The Ivors Academy has announced the nominations for The Ivors with Apple Music 2021.
Former One Direction star Harry Styles and Kid Harpoon lead the nominations, while other high-profile nominees include Lewis Capaldi, AJ Tracey, Celeste, Lianne La Havas and Dave.
In the Best Album category, Lianne La Havas, and her co-writer Matthew Hales, are nominated for a second time for her self-titled Lianne La Havas, nine years after her debut album also received Ivor Novello recognition. Irish rockers Fontaines D.C., for A Hero’s Death, Laura Marling, for Song for Our Daughter, and Tom Misch, Yussef Dayes and Rocco Palladino for What Kinda Music, all receive their first ever nominations. Finally, Pa Salieu’s Send Them to Coventry is also nominated, following Pa being crowned winner of BBC Sound of 2021.
In Best Contemporary Song, Dave and Fraser T Smith are nominated for an impressive third time in the category for Children of the Internet. Ashnikko’s transcending audio-digital collaboration with TikTok and Dr Dre, Daisy – written by Ashnikko and Slinger - and For Those I Love’s Top Scheme are also nominated. A second nomination for Pa Salieu with Energy – co-written with Kwes Darko, Felix Joseph, Mahalia and Alastair O’Donnell, also marks Mahalia’s first ever nomination. Rising Star Award with Apple Music nominee, Rachel Chinouriri, receives further recognition for Give Me A Reason – co-written with Tom Henry.
The Best Original Film Score category includes first-time nominees Adam Janota Bzowski for the music to psychological horror film Saint Maud, as well as Blanck Mass for BAFTA-nominated Calm with Horses. They are joined by previous Ivor Novello nominee, Anne Nikitin for the Four Kids and It film score.
The film scores for animation Two by Two: Overboard! by Craig Stuart Garfinkle and Eimear Noone and the trending Netflix-hit The Trial of the Chicago 7, based on the trial of a group of anti–Vietnam War protesters in Chicago in 1968 – composed by Daniel Pemberton – are also nominated within the category.
Best Original Video Game Score includes Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi’s Ghost of Tsushima for PlayStation, the score for adventure game Little Orpheus by Jessica Curry and Jim Fowler, and the intricately hand-painted Ori and the Will of the Wisps score - composed by Gareth Coker.
Featuring a breadth of powerful themes, Best Song Musically and Lyrically sees Arlo Parks and co-writer Gianluca Buccellati pick up their first nomination for Black Dog – which focuses on mental health. Also receiving a nomination, Headie One and Fred again..’s GANG reframes the song’s namesake, moving away from negative connotations associated with the word, to emphasise loyalty and brotherhood.
Marina receives recognition for lead single Man’s World from her fifth studio album, which touches upon misogyny and was made by an all-female team. God’s Own Children by Barney Lister and Obongjayar and Stop This Flame written by Celeste and Jamie Hartman emotively draw upon the topics of strength and resilience to also earn them nominations for The Ivors 2021.
The Best Television Soundtrack includes a quartet of book-to-screen adaptations from the BBC, with Us composed by Oli Julian, cult-classic Noughts + Crosses composed by Matthew Herbert and Dracula by James Bond composer and previous Ivor Novello Award winner David Arnold, with Michael Price, as well as A Suitable Boy by Alex Heffes and Anoushka Shankar, all receiving nominations. Completing the nominations for this category is American science fiction thriller Devs composed by Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury and The Insects.
This year’s nominations for PRS for Music Most Performed Work celebrate a collection of songwriters for five smash-hit songs from the last year. Harry Styles and Kid Harpoon lead the category with two nominations for Watermelon Sugar – co-written with Tyler Johnson and Mitchell Rowland and Adore You – co-written with Amy Allen and Tyler Johnson.
Also nominated, after having previously climbed to the top of the charts, are two entries from Lewis Capaldi: Someone You Loved – written by Capaldi and Tom Barnes, Pete Kelleher, Ben Kohn and Sam Roman and Before You Go – written by Capaldi, Tom Barnes, Pete Kelleher, Ben Kohn and Phil Plested. Finally, songwriters Jonathan Courtidis, Dan Dare and Robert Harvey receive a nomination for co-writing Head & Heart, the number one record from Joel Corry and MNEK.
For the first time there are five nominees for Songwriter of the Year. The award recognises a songwriter or songwriting partnership who wrote an outstanding body of successful songs commercially released in 2020 and this year includes AJ Tracey, who saw top-five success in the UK charts with three of his releases last year, and Kamille who co-wrote songs released by Little Mix, Mabel, Dua Lipa, Clean Bandit, Headie One and Tiesto.
Celeste is joined by her co-writer Jamie Hartman as they go head-to-head with multi-nominated Kid Harpoon and Harry Styles, following Harry’s second solo album going platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. MNEK is also recognised in the category for co-writing chart-toppers for Little Mix, KSI, Sigala, Paloma Faith, Steps and Dua Lipa in 2020.
Each category is judged by individual panels of Academy-invited songwriters and composers, except the PRS for Music Most Performed Work and Songwriter of the Year.
All winners will receive a dedicated Ivor Novello Award and join a roll call of songwriting greats that includes Adele, Stormzy, Annie Lennox, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Joan Armatrading.
The 66th presentation of Ivor Novello Awards at The Ivors with Apple Music will be held at Grosvenor House, London on Tuesday 21 September.
