Will Highlander Katie Gregson-MacLeod's song beat Harry Styles to top songwriting award?
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HIGHLAND singer songwriter Katie Gregson-MacLeod has been nominated in the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards' best song category alongside Harry Styles, Florence And The Machine and Tom Odell.
The team working with 21-year-old Highland musician had been hoping Katie might be included in the nominations for this year's Rising Star award which includes mentoring for promising young musicians – nominees this year including Cat Burns.
But they were delighted to discover Katie's first-ever Ivor Novello nomination was for one of the main awards, the best song musically and lyrically with top industry names included among her fellow nominees who are – Harry Styles, Tom Odell, Florence & The Machine and SAULT.
The night before the announcement, Katie hinted at the Ivor Novello news coming, in a tweet: "Would you believe me if I said I was going to share some news tomorrow that I can't really believe is real."
And on tweeting the announcement of her nomination, Katie replied to the awards – "Just thank you."
As the news broke on her Instagram, Katie said: "Thank you @ivorsacademy for this honour and to everyone instrumental in this song reaching so many." and she added "I was making shakshuka and crying when I found out."
The Belladrum Festival where Katie will return to play this summer said: "Amazing!!" and "We are so proud of you!"
Fellow nominee Tom Odell said: "You deserve to win!!" with Katie, returning the favour, commenting "The feeling is mutual."
The nominated songs in the category are:
As It Was performed by Harry Styles, written by Kid Harpoon, Tyler Johnson and Harry Styles.
King by Florence And The Machine, written by Jack Antonoff and Florence Welch.
Complex by Katie Gregson-MacLeod, written by Katie Gregson-MacLeod.
Best Day Of My Life by Tom Odell, written by Laurie Blundell and Tom Odell.
Stronger performed by SAULT, written by Dean “Inflo” Josiah Cover and Cleopatra Nikolic.
Katie's is the only nomination with just a single songwriter's name, all the rest being collaborations.
But a recent songwriting collaboration with Matt Maltese – who she wrote with for single White Lies – may well be the song she referred to in a recent interview as being a possible upcoming release. The singer songwriter played the song TV Show on the final leg of her debut tour across the Highlands and Islands, at her Inverness gig at Eden Court on Saturday.
The winners will be announced in London on Thursday, May 18.
