It was the Ivor Novello Awards in London yesterday, and leading the way with two wins was up-and-coming Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Alon.
Alon – whose 2025 debut album In Limerence was nominated for the Mercury Prize last year – won Best Song Musically And Lyrically for Don’t Fall Asleep, a delicate finger-picked number about the accidental death of their cousin. The Ivor judges described it as “profoundly emotionally honest.” Alon also scooped the Rising Star award.
Kae Tempest won the Best Contemporary Song for I Stand On The Line. A co-write with Fraser T Smith, it’s a moving depiction of the difficulties of moving through gendered spaces as a trans man. Judges praised the song for giving a voice for those who are “too often unheard.”
Lola Young picked up the award for Most Performed Work for Messy, a song which gives new meaning to the phrase ‘slow burner’. It was released two whole years ago, in May 2024, but didn’t reach the charts until that November, reached Number One in spring 2025 and went on to spend 75 weeks in the Top 100.
There were also awards for CMAT – who won Best Album for Euro Country – and Sam Fender, who added Songwriter Of The Year to his list of gongs. As previously flagged up a few weeks ago, Rosalia won International Songwriter Of The Year.
Then there were the heritage awards, if we can call them that. Calvin Harris, who has been making hits for nearly two decades now, won the Icon Award, and Kano, who at 41 is now very much an elder statesman of UK hip-hop/ grime, won the Visionary Award.
Two Fellowships of the Ivor's Academy were also given out, one posthumously to George Michael, and the other to Thom Yorke. The latter was introduced by Harry Styles, whose very funny speech was one of the highlights of the ceremony.
Describing his introduction as “a terrifying honour,” Styles hailed the Radiohead singer as someone who “has time and time again shown us what the future sounds like. Never compromising, a restless creative, an artist in its truest form. There are no two songs that sound alike. For so many of us, he lives atop this magical music mountain that we’re all attempting to climb.”
He also let slip a very personal piece of information: “I lost my virginity to [Radiohead b-side] Talk Show Host,” he said before correcting himself: “I lost my virginity to the intro of Talk Show Host.”
