Ivor Novello Awards

• 1. Introduction

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  The Ivor Novello Awards take their name from Ivor Novello, a Welsh entertainer, and they have been presented every year in London since 1956. In 1964, John Lennon and Paul McCartney picked up four nominations between them. Two of those nominations landed them in the same category, pitted against each other for the highest British sales of 1963. That year they also received a Special Award for Outstanding Services to British Music. These awards exist specifically to honor songwriting and composing, not performing. What the ceremonies look like, who is allowed to judge them, and what the trophy itself represents still lie ahead.

• 2. Two Ceremonies

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  The organization behind the ceremonies now calls itself the Ivors Academy, though it was formerly known as the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. Each May, the Ivors Academy stages The Ivors, and since 2020 the ceremony has carried sponsorship from Apple Music. The Ivors are recognized worldwide as the leading platform for honoring Britain and Ireland's songwriting and composing talent. Unlike most ceremonies on the musical calendar, The Ivors are judged and presented entirely by the writing community, without input from publishers or record companies. A separate ceremony, the Ivors Composer Awards, arrives every December, sponsored by PRS for Music and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

• 3. The Bronze Muse

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  Euterpe, the muse of lyric poetry, stands at the center of every Ivor Novello Award, cast as a solid bronze sculpture. Hazel Underwood designed the trophy in 1955, a year before the first ceremony took place. That same bronze figure gets awarded across more than twenty separate categories, from songwriting itself to scoring work far outside the charts.

• 4. From Pop Hits to Film Scores

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  The nominated annual awards include Best Contemporary Song, the Album Award, Best Original Film Score, Best Television Soundtrack, and Best Original Video Game Score. Two further annual prizes, Songwriter of the Year and Most Performed Work, round out that top tier. Beneath those sit a wider set of standing honors: a Jazz Award, a Classical Music Award, an Inspiration Award, and Outstanding Song Collection. Outstanding Contribution to British Music and a Lifetime Achievement award recognize careers rather than single songs. A Special International Award and a BASCA Fellowship sit among them as well. The roster also includes a Best Dance Single Award and International Achievement in Musical Theater. Further categories cover the Jimmy Kennedy Award, a PRS for Music Special International Award, and Best Selling UK Single. The list closes with Best Original Music for a Television/Radio Broadcast and a Special Award for Songwriting.

• 5. Landmark Wins

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  Lynsey de Paul became the first woman to win an Ivor, in 1974, for the song "Won't Somebody Dance with Me." The win came in the Best Ballad or Romantic Song category. She won a second Ivor a year later, for her television theme song "No Honestly." In 1976, 10cc's Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart collected three separate awards for writing "I'm Not in Love." Those three wins were Most Performed British Work, Best Pop Song, and International Hit of the Year. Amy Winehouse followed a similar pattern in 2008, picking up three nominations for the Ivors. Two of those nominations competed in the same category, Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2010, an Ivor went to a video game soundtrack for the first time. The winning score belonged to the PS3 title Killzone 2, composed by Joris de Man.