Today has seen the announcement the highly prestigious Ivor Novello awards. The awards (established in 1955) are often regarded as the most prestigious UK based awards due to the fact they merit songwriting and the judges are often the peers of those nominated; thus their critique and opinion obviously will carry more weight.

The full list of award categories and their respective nominees is below:

Best song musically and lyrically

• Bloodstream – Ed Sheeran
• Bros – Wolf Alice
• Wasn’t Expecting That – Jamie Lawson

Best contemporary song

• All My Friends – Snakehips ft Tinashe & Chance The Rapper
• Cargo – Roots Manuva
• Shutdown – Skepta

Most performed work

• Hold Back The River – James Bay
• Hold My Hand – Jess Glynne
• King – Years & Years

Best album

• Darling Arithmetic – Villagers
• In Colour – Jamie xx
• Matador – Gaz Coombes

Best film score

• Ex Machina
• Pan
• The Duke of Burgundy

Best television soundtrack

• And Then There Were None
• From Darkness
• London Spy

There has already been widespread discussion about the lack of Adele in any of the categories, especially given just how incredible 2016 has been for Adele. You could easily argue that she could quite easily be represented in ‘Best Album’ or ‘Best Song Musically or Lyrically’. However there is still the chance for Adele (and others I might add!) to win an Ivor Novello as there are two special awards that don’t have nominees: “outstanding song collection” and “songwriter of the year”. As host and BBC Radio DJ Paul Gambaccini said on the matter:

“All this means is that she was not nominated in the five categories in which there were judges,” said Gambaccini.

“It does not mean that she hasn’t won anything that was in the gift of the academy.”