The nominations were released for the UK's flagship songwriting awards, the Ivor Novellos, yesterday. As we all know, anyone can sing, it's the songwriting that matters, or that's the way it seems sometimes, and certainly most singer/songwriters seem to treasure nominations and awards for their song creation skills more than their performing talents, so presumably Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner, Amy Winehouse, Madonna and Robbie Williams are all feeling good this morning, given that they all appear on the Ivor shortlists this year.
With his band's second album out this week, Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner finds himself competing with other relative newcomers Nerina Pallot and Scott Matthews for the Best Song Musically & Lyrically prize. Turner is nominated for his song 'When The Sun Goes Down', while it's Pallot's song 'Sophia' and Matthews' song 'Elusive' that are shortlisted.
More established artists appear in the International Hit Of The Year category, with Robbie Williams among the songwriters nominated for his 2006 single 'Rudebox', while Madonna is nominated for 'Sorry' and Elton John gets a nomination for his role in co-writing the Scissor Sisters hit 'I Don't Feel Like Dancin'. Both Madonna and Elton John/Scissor Sisters are also up for the Most Performed Work prize, competing in that category with Corinne Bailey Rae, who is nominated for her song 'Put Your Records On'.
In the Contemporary Song category tracks from Hot Chip, Amy Winehouse and Bodyrox all appear, while the soundtracks of Casino Royale, Ice Age The Meltdown and Severance are all shortlisted for the Best Original Film Score prize.
There's a full list of the nominations at the bottom of today's Daily. The awards themselves will be presented at a London ceremony on 24 May.