Sam Fender has won his first Ivor Novello Award.
The 28-year-old singer songwriter fought off the likes of Adele, Ella Henderson and James Arthur to bag the gong for Best Song Musically And Lyrically for his hit ‘Seventeen Going Under’, at the 67th annual ceremony, just weeks after performing his “biggest gig to date” at Finsbury Park in London.
Elsewhere, ‘Funky Friday’ rap star Dave, 23, was named Songwriter of the Year for his album ‘We’re All Alone In This Together’ and was up against stars such as Ed Sheeran, Adele and Coldplay for the honour.
It became the fourth Ivor Novello award in five years for the ‘Funky Friday’ hitmaker, who became the youngest ever winner at the age of 19 back in 2018 when he won Best Contemporary Song for his politically charged track ‘Question Time’ at the 2018 and later went on to win the same award for his other songs in 2020 and 2021.
Elsewhere, pop superstar Ed Sheeran won the award for Most Performed Work for his hit song ‘Bad Habits’ and Little Simz – who was crowned Breakthrough Artist at the BRIT Awards earlier in 2022 – won Best Contemporary Song for her hit ‘I Love You, I Hate You’.
The Ivor Novello Awards are rewarded to artists by The Ivor Academy for and the winner is selected by judges who are members of the the Academy
A full list of winners is as follows:
ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP
Peter Gabriel
BEST ALBUM
Pink Noise written by Dann Hume and Laura Mvula. Performed by Laura Mvula
BEST CONTEMPORARY SONG
‘I Love You, I Hate You’, written by Dean ‘Inflo’ Josiah Cover and Little Simz. Performed by Little Simz
BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE
The World To Come, composed by Daniel Blumberg
BEST ORIGINAL VIDEO GAME SCORE
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, composed by Richard Jacques
BEST SONG MUSICALLY AND LYRICALLY
‘Seventeen Going Under’, written and performed by Sam Fender
BEST TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK
‘Landscapers’ composed by Arthur Sharpe
OUTSTANDING SONG COLLECTION
Paul Heaton
PRS FOR MUSIC MOST PERFORMED WORK
‘Bad Habits’ written by Fred again.., Johnny McDaid and Ed Sheeran. Performed by Ed Sheeran
PRS FOR MUSIC ICON AWARD
Robert Smith and Simon Gallup
RISING STAR AWARD WITH APPLE MUSIC
Naomi Kimpenu
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Dave
SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL AWARD WITH APPLE MUSIC
Shakira
VISIONARY AWARD
Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde