Ivor Novello Awards 2024
Black Swan, Black Classical Music and Geronimo Blues (plus Raye)
The Ivor Novello Awards (The Ivors) for UK and Irish songwriting and composing—presented 23 May at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel, London
The awards are named after Ivor Novello, a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer, who died suddenly in 1951 at the age of fifty-eight. They’ve been running since 1956 and are for excellence in British and Irish songwriting and screen composition such as film or TV scores. There are currently thirteen categories including an Academy Fellowship (not always awarded). The blue ribbon category is Best Song Musically and Lyrically, recognising excellence in songwriting craft, with reference to melody, lyrics, harmony and structure. The Best Contemporary Song recognises outstanding originality in songwriting / songs which capture the moment. Songs published and commercially released in the previous calendar year are eligible, with at least one third British or Irish contribution.
Many classic songs have won the Best Song Musically and Lyrically over the years, such as “Where Do you Go To (My Lovely)?” by Peter Sarstedt, “Streets of London” by Ralph McTell, “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, “Common People” by Pulp, “Suddenly I See” by KT Tunstall, “Strong” by Robbie Williams, “Love Is a Losing Game” by Amy Winehouse and three songs by Elton John (a record)—“Daniel”, “Nikita” and “Sacrifice”. Why “Airport” by The Motors didn’t win in 1978, we’ll never know.
The Ivors Classical Awards (formerly called the Ivors Composer Awards) are sister awards in Nov/Dec that started in 2003, and celebrate excellence in UK classical, jazz and sound arts, currently with eleven categories such as Best chamber ensemble composition or Best orchestral composition. We don’t cover that here, but I thought I’d mention it and there’s a link at the bottom for more details.
The awards are for the writers not the performers, although these may coincide.
Selected Results
Best Song Musically and Lyrically: Black Swan by Victoria Canal, Jonny Lattimer and Eg White (performed by Victoria Canal), which was released as part of the six-track EP “Well Well” last August. Victoria is a Spanish-American singer-songwriter—she’s German born and recently based in Amsterdam—who plays the guitar and piano on her songs, overcoming being born without her right forearm. The other two writers are British, so this qualified for the awards. Her music is typically classified as indie, piano-driven and soul-stirring, emotive pop. Check it out!
Best Contemporary Song: Geronimo Blues by Giles Kwakeulati King-Ashong, Peter Bennie, Alan Ross “Biscuit” Harris, Raven Bush and Kae Tempest (performed by Speakers Corner Quartet featuring Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest). The song is spoken word hip-hop and the lyrics are angry and political to a degree (though complex).
Album of the Year: Black Classical Music by Yussef Dayes, Rocco Palladino and Charlie Stacey (performed by Yussef Dayes). This is the debut solo album for Yussef, a thirty-year-old London-based drummer and composer, active in the contemporary jazz scene.
Songwriter of the Year: Raye, a twenty-six-year-old London-born pop and R&B singer and songwriter (real name, Rachel Keen), who was also Artist of the Year at the Brits in March.
Academy Fellowship: Bruce Springsteen. Twenty-three of these have been awarded over the years including Paul McCartney, Joan Armatrading, Elton John and (last year) Sting.
The awards section of the Ivors Academy website is excellent, with full Ivors archives and Ivors Classical Awards archives, including links to Amazon Music for many of the songs. Wikipedia Ivors Best Song Musically and Lyrically provides a list of nominations and winners for this award all on one page, and Wikipedia Ivor Novello Awards gives links to winners and nominees of the Ivors for all categories (you have to follow a link at the bottom to get there, based on the decade of interest).
I still owe you details of the Cannes film festival, which took place from 14 to 25 May, the Nebula sci-fi awards on 8 Jun, the Women’s Prize for Fiction on 13 Jun, the Tony Awards for Broadway theatre on 16 Jun, and the Yoto Carnegies for children’s fiction on 20 Jun. It’s unending!