U2, Charli XCX and Robbie Williams honoured at Ivor songwriting awards

LONDON – British singers Charli XCX, Robbie Williams and Myles Smith and Trinidadian rapper Berwyn triumphed on May 22 at the Ivors, Britain’s annual awards for songwriters and screen composers, with Irish rockers U2 adding to their honours with a fellowship.

U2 members Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr follow English singers Paul McCartney, Sting and Kate Bush as well as American rocker Bruce Springsteen in receiving an Ivors Academy Fellowship, the highest honour bestowed by the Britain-based association. They are the first Irish songwriters to do so.

“When we gathered in Larry Mullen’s kitchen in 1976, this was unimaginable – we never thought that the band could be this old,” Clayton, 65, said on stage.

“We had the most basic of talents, but we believed that songs could take us anywhere because we’d already been to so many places, we just had to tell our story.”

At the ceremony in London, Charli XCX, 32, was named Songwriter Of The Year in recognition of her hit album Brat, which inspired a cultural phenomenon.

But Brat lost Album Of The Year to Berwyn’s Who Am I, with judges hailing that record’s “vivid storytelling that transcends generations, race and social differences, offering a voice to those often unseen by society”.

Best Contemporary Song went to singer Sans Soucis’ Circumnavigating Georgia, while Irish singer Orla Gartland’s Mine won Best Song Musically And Lyrically. Smith’s hit Stargazing won the Most Performed category.

Williams, whose hits include Angels (1997) and Let Me Entertain You (1998), won the Music Icon Award “in recognition of a songwriting career that has touched millions and defined a generation”.

“I’m just compelled to keep searching for the perfect pop tune and also compelled to express myself and try and get whatever’s inside out for whatever reason that is,” the 51-year-old said, when asked how his songwriting had evolved over his career.

American rock band The Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers took the Special International Award, with judges describing the 43-year-old as “one of the most influential songwriters of his generation” for lyrics he penned for the band as well as for his solo work.

British singer Lola Young, 24, who led nominations with three nods, took the Rising Star Award.

Named after the early 20th-century Welsh composer, actor and entertainer Ivor Novello, the Ivor Awards were first handed out in 1956. Reuters