Sam Smith has been nominated for a prestigious Ivor Novello Award.
The 22-year-old is up for the award with his song Stay with Me in the most performed work category. He faces competition from Clean Bandit for their track Rather Be and George Ezra with Budapest.
The annual awards are now in their 60th year and celebrate songwriting and composing. The gongs are voted for by writers and this year they will be presented at a ceremony in London, UK, on May 21.
The announcement tops off a recent stint of awards and acclaim for Sam after he scooped four Grammys in February, including song of the year for Stay with Me and pop record of the year for In the Lonely Hour. He also received two Brits and the track is nominated for four Billboard Music Awards.
Stay with Me hasn’t been without some hurdles though as in January, veteran US songwriter Tom Petty was given a writing credit and awarded royalties, because of the similarities to his 1989 track I Won’t Back Down.
Sam “amicably” agreed that Tom and his collaborator Jeff Lynne would be credited as co-writers of the song.
But, under the rules set by BASCA (the British Society of Songwriters, Composers and Authors), the pair would not be eligible to share an Ivor Novello award if Sam was to win, as they received less than 15 per cent of the writing credit.
While Sam was happy to give the credit, he admitted at the time that he had never even heard I Won’t Back Down.
‘It’s a very, very regular thing that happens, and I didn’t realise that. And I’m still learning about all this stuff,” he told CBC News Now. “I just go into the studio, and Stay with Me was me just writing a song about me sleeping with too many people, and wishing they would stay over. That was my mindset when I was writing that song, and I was very shocked to find out that the melody was similar, because again, I am 22 and I’ve never heard the song.”
Sam Smith is currently on his Australian and New Zealand tour.
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