Adele Leads Ivor Novello Nominations

Adele leads the nominations for the prestigious Ivor Novello songwriting awards, alongside the likes of Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey.

PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, Nero and James Blake were also named in the list.

Adele , who swept the board at this year's Grammy Awards and won two Brits in February, is in the running for best album for 21.

She faces competition from veteran singers PJ Harvey for Let England Shake and Kate Bush's 50 Words.

The 23-year-old's track, Rolling In The Deep, is up for Best Song Musically and Lyrically alongside Ed Sheeran's The A Team and Florence And The Machine's Shake It Out.

Producer Paul Epworth, who worked with Adele on 21, co-wrote both Rolling In The Deep and Shake It Out.

Meanwhile, two of Adele's songs make the list for the Most Performed Work.

Rolling In the Deep and Someone Like You will battle it out with Take That's The Flood.

One of the surprise hits of last year, Lana Del Rey's Video Games, is up for Best Contemporary Song alongside Nero's Promises and The Wilhelm Scream by James Blake.
The song was co-written by a little known songwriter from Lincoln, Justin Parker, who was unemployed prior to his collaboration with the New York singer.

In the Best Film Score category, Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood is nominated for his work on British indie movie We Need To Talk About Kevin.

The 57th Ivor Novello awards, which take place on May 17, will be presented by radio presenter Paul Gambaccini for the 25th year running.

He told Sky News it was "no cert at all" that Adele would sweep the board.

"The judges for each category are different so there is not going to be a band wagon effect. They are judged in isolation," he said.

Reflecting on the mainly female list he said it was "fascinating".

He remarked: "The female voice is currently the dominant voice in popular music at the moment... you go back, pre-Madonna, it was the male voice that was dominant."

He said social changes and the range of topics covered in music had helped tip the balance in women's favour with "protest" songs diminishing and the rise of more sexualised lyrics.

Gambaccini added: "It's when you take a look at evolution and how society has changed that you realise it has changed in favour of female voices in popular music."

Full list of nominations

Best Song Musically and Lyrically

Rolling In The Deep - Adele
Shake It Out - Florence + The Machine
The A Team - Ed Sheeran

Best Contemporary Song

Promises - Nero
The Wilhelm Scream - James Blake
Video Games - Lana Del Rey

Best Original Film Score

Life In A Day - Harry Gregson-Williams and Matthew Herbert
The First Grader - Alex Heffes
We Need To Talk About Kevin - Jonny Greenwood

Best Television Soundtrack

Leonardo - Mark Russell
Page Eight - Paul Englishby
The Shadow Line - Martin Phipps

PRS for Music Most Performed Work

Rolling In The Deep - Adele
Someone Like You - Adele
The Flood - Take That

Album Award
21 - Adele
50 Words For Snow - Kate Bush
Let England Shake - PJ Harvey