/Michael Kiwanuka and Laura Mvula dominate Ivor Novello nominations

Michael Kiwanuka and Laura Mvula dominate Ivor Novello nominations

Michael Kiwanuka and Laura Mvula are throughout this year’s Ivor Novello awards shortlists.

“I think this year’s nominations reflect a different bit of British music, more to do with the creativity of our figures like Laura Mvula, than just commercial success,” he said. “You don’t necessarily need a label these days, and hopefully she’ll carry on, but I think that demonstrates there’s something a little bit awry about the way the music industry is working. I worry that culturally we aren’t fully valuing that connection from music made by people like Michael Kiwanuka and Laura Mvula.”

Kiwanuka and Mvula will compete for best song musically and lyrically, Kiwanuka for his track Black Man in a White World and Mvula for Overcome, co-written with Chic’s Nile Rodgers.

Also in the category are Mystery Jets, the first time they have been nominated for an Ivor Novello, for their song Telomere, written by father and son bandmates Henry and Blaine Harrison.