The Ivors 2025: Lola Young, Raye, Ghetts, and Charli XCX Lead Nominees – Check Out the Complete List

Overview of IVOR Novello Awards 2025

More than 70 songwriters have been nominated for the IVOR NOVELLO Award in 2025, with Lola Young, Ray, Ghetts, and Charlie XCX leading the nominations. Check out the complete list below.

Nomination Highlights

The nominees were revealed today (April 23) across eight categories, including “Best Album,” “Best Modern Song,” and “Rising Star Award” in collaboration with Amazon Music. This year’s awarding ceremony marks the 70th anniversary of the prestigious award and is set to take place on May 22 at Grosvenor House.

Young garnered the most nominations this year with three, marking the first year of recognition by the Ivors Academy. Ray, last year’s songwriter of the year winner, along with Conor Dikinson (who contributed to the Young album), each received two nominations.

In the Best Album category, nominees for the prestigious title include Charlie XCX with “Brat,” Berwyn with “Who I,” and Ghetts with “Specially, for the purpose.” Jordan Rakei is also in the running with his recent album “The Loop,” as well as Lola Young with “This is still not intended for you.”

In another category, Ghetts has secured a nomination for “Best Modern Song” with “Double Standards” (Feat. Sampha), marking his second nomination. Other contenders include “The Angel of My Dreams” by Jade, “The Environment of Georgia” by Susis, “Like Black People Lose Smile” by Bash, and “Allergies” by Pa Saluu.

Additionally, Laura Marling and Ray are contenders for best musical and lyrical song with their tracks “Child” and “Genesis,” respectively. Other nominees in this category include “In the Modern World” by Fontenses, “Messy” by Lola Young, and “Mine” by Orls Hartland—the latter marking the artist’s first recognition by the Academy.

In the PRS category for most performed songs, “Last Christmas” by WHAM! gives George Michael a posthumous nomination for the IVOR NOVELLO Award, 21 years after he was first nominated in the same category for “Amazing.” Competing against him are Harry Styles’ 2022 hit, Dua Lipa’s “Houdini,” “Star Fragment” by Miles Smith and Prada Kasyo, Ray, and D-Block Europe.

The Rising Star award in collaboration with Amazon Music celebrates promising British, Irish, or British-resident artists aged 18-24 and features an all-female nominee list, including BEA, Liang Lawrence, Lulu, Nia Smith, and Lola Young.

IVORS also includes nominations for film/video game and television soundtracks, with noteworthy entries such as the score by Mickey J. Asante for Kneecap, the music by Rafferti for Substance, and Miki Levy’s original composition for The Zone of Interest.

For the best original video game score, nominations include Mathieu Alvado and Mark Choi for The Empire of Ants, John Consolakis for Goodbye the North, Eli Rainsberry for Herd, David Garcia Diaz for the soundtrack to Saga Senua: Hellblade II, and music from Casting Frank Stone.

Established in 1956, the IVOR NOVELLO Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in songwriting and composition, honoring artists and composers recognized by the IVORS Academy. Past winners include Harry Styles, Wet Leg, Sault, and Florence + The Machine.

In March, it was announced that U2 would become the first Irish act to receive a scholarship from the Ivors Academy—the highest honor bestowed by the organization.

This makes them the latest laureates, following Bruce Springsteen, who received the award last year and was the first international songwriter to be honored.

The U2 award will be presented to an esteemed 28-member Academy, joining notable songwriting icons such as Sir Paul McCartney, Kate Bush CBE, Joan Armatrading CBE, and Sting, all of whom have received accolades from the Academy in 2023.