The awards celebrate “the best in British and Irish song-writing” across the last year, in the world of music, film, TV and gaming, with this year’s awards showcasing the work of 48 individual song-writers and composers, 70 percent of which have been nominated for the first time.

This year’s awards sees Jorja Smith’s, ‘Blue Lights and the 1975’s, ‘Love It if We Made It’ go up against Ghetts’ single, ‘Black Rose’, in the contemporary pop category, while best album will be contested between Idles, with ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance’, Young Fathers, with ‘Cocoa Sugar’, and Let’s Eat Grandma, with I’m All Ears’.

Crispin Hunt, the Ivor Novello’s Academy chair, said he was pleased with the diversity of the field and that this year, 70% of the nominees were first-timers. Speaking about the nominees, Academy chair, Crispin Hunt, said: “The works nominated for The Ivors 2019 are brilliantly diverse, and we’re delighted to see so many first-time nominees recognised. As the only peer-nominated music award in the country, they are a fantastic reflection of the exciting emerging talent of British & Irish music creators today. Our congratulations to all nominated.”

As grime dominates the awards for a third year in a row, with Ghetts and Dizzee Rascal’s song-writing being reconisged, it didn’t go unnoticed the lack of women nominated for the UK’s most prestigious song-writing awards. Ghetts and Dizzee Rascal’s nominations continues the recent tradition of the Novello’s recognising grime and UK hip-hop. Last year Stormzy and Dave both won awards, while in 2017, Skepta was named song-writer of the year and also won for best contemporary song.

This year also saw the return of politically charged singles, which were once again well represented, after last year saw Dave’s Question Time, a song that took aim at Theresa May for her handling of NHS funding as well as her response to the Grenfell Tower fire, won the best contemporary song award.

This year Bristol punks Idles’ album, ‘Joy as an Act of Resistance’, the 1975’s single, ‘Love It If We Made It’, and Ghetts’ track, ‘Black Rose’, are similarly politically charged. Idles tackles xenophobia and Brexit, the 1975 discuss the fetishisation of black men, while Ghetts’ focuses on the representation of black women in the mainstream media.

Female songwriters were, again, poorly represented in the two major categories of best album and best contemporary song, with Let’s Eat Grandma and Jorja Smith – whose song ‘Blue Lights’ was co-written with Dizzee Rascal, with both receiving one nomination.

Speaking about the awards and the poor representation of women, song-writer and DJ, Tom Robinson, said: “It’s about song-writing craft. But songwriters can’t live in a vacuum from the society they live in.

“It’s been an uphill struggle to make the organisation more reflective of society and on the panels now it’s 50/50. There’s no gender bias in terms of the people who are choosing. Let’s Eat Grandma are as radical as you like and they’re two teenage girls from Norwich.”

Other notable nominees include Arctic Monkeys, who were nominated in the category of best song musically and lyrically, for their song ‘Four Out of Five’, alongside Ben Howard, for ‘Nica Libres at Dusk’, and Hozier, for ‘Nina Cried Power’. Meanwhile, George Ezra’s ‘Shotgun’, Jax Jones and Ina Wroldsen’s ‘Breathe’, and Rudimental’s ‘These Days’ compete for the PRS Music Most Performed Work award, which is given to the songs that have received the most performances, in 2018.

The full list of nominees can be seen below:

BEST SONG MUSICALLY AND LYRICALLY:
‘Four Out Of Five’
Written by Alex Turner
Performed by Arctic Monkeys
Published in the UK by EMI Music Publishing

‘Nica Libres at Dusk’
Written and performed by Ben Howard
Published in the UK by Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Limited

‘Nina Cried Power’
Written and performed by Hozier
Published in the UK by Sony/ATV Music Publishing – The Evolving Music Company

BEST CONTEMPORARY SONG:
‘Black Rose’
Written by Ghetts, Kojey Radical, Daniel Miles, JoJo Mukeza and Jaime Naldo Menezes
Performed by Ghetts ft Kojey Radical
Published in the UK by BMG Rights Management and EMI Music Publishing – Stellar Songs

‘Blue Lights’
Written by Guy Bonnet, Dizzee Rascal, Roland Romanelli and Jorja Smith
Performed by Jorja Smith
Published in the UK by EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing and Sony/ATV Music Publishing

‘Love It If We Made It’
Written by George Daniel, Adam Hann, Matthew Healy and Ross MacDonald
Performed by The 1975
Published in the UK by Good Solider Songs.

‘Breathe’
Written by Jax Jones and Ina Wroldsen
Performed by Jax Jones ft Ina Wroldsen
Published in the UK by Kobalt Music Publishing and Reservoir Reverb Music

‘Shotgun’
Written by George Ezra Barnett, FRED and Joel Pott
Performed by George Ezra
Published in the UK by BMG Rights Management and Sony ATV/Music Publishing – Promised Land Music

‘These Days’
Written by Julian Bunetta, Dan Caplen, Macklemore, John Ryan and Jamie Scott
Performed by Rudimental ft Jess Glynne, Macklemore and Dan Caplen
Published in the UK by Big Deal Music – Peermusic UK, BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing and EMI Music Publishing

BEST ALBUM:
Cocoa Sugar
Written by Kayus Bankole, Graham Hastings and Alloysious Massaquoi
Performed by Young Fathers
Published in the UK by Just Isn’t Music Limited

I’m All Ears
Written by Jenny Hollingworth and Rosa Walton
Performed by Let’s Eat Grandma
Published in the UK by Blue Raincoat Songs

Joy As An Act of Resistance
Written by Jonathan Beavis, Mark Bowen, Adam Devonshire, Lee Kiernan and Joseph Talbot
Performed by Idles
Published in the UK by Kobalt Music Publishing

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE:
American Animals
Composed by Anne Nikitin
Published in the UK by Accorder Music – Peermusic UK

Phantom Thread
Composed by Jonny Greenwood
Published in the UK by Warner/Chappell North America Limited

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Composed by Daniel Pemberton
Published in the UK by Sony/ATV Music Publishing

BEST TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK:
Flowers (Series 2)
Composed by Arthur Sharpe
Published in the UK by Sony/ATV Music Publishing

Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
Composed by Clint Mansell
Published in the UK by Decca Publishing – Universal Music Publishing

Requiem
Composed by Natasha Khan and Dominik Scherrer
Published in the UK by BMG Rights Management, Du Vinage Publishing and Sony/ATV Music Publishing

BEST ORIGINAL VIDEO GAME SCORE:
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Composed by Michael Georgiades, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith

Q.U.B.E. 2
Composed by David Housden

Sea of Thieves
Composed by Robin Beanland

Among other categories, that will also be announced on the night of the, Ivor Novello Awards are: International Achievement, Outstanding Song Collection, PRS for Music Outstanding Contribution to British Music, PRS for Music Special International Award, Song-writers of the year, and The Ivors Jazz Award.