THE RISING STAR AWARD WITH AMAZON MUSIC
Winner AnnouncedThe 2023 Rising Star winner is Victoria Canal.
In its fourth year, the award discovers, supports, and accelerates the careers of the most promising music creators. Past winners and nominees include Mysie, Griff, Willow Kayne, Rachel Chinouriri, Naomi Kimpenu and Holly Humberstone.
This year’s winner, Victoria Canal, is the fourth consecutive female songwriter to pick up the award since it began in 2020.
Cat Burns, Ines Dunn, tendai, venbee and Victoria Canal each received their first Ivor Novello nomination.
They will be part of a mentoring scheme from The Ivors Academy and receive a year-long mentorship from a well-established Academy member to develop their network, discover new opportunities and understand how to navigate their career.
The nominees will tap into Amazon Music’s global developing artist programme, Breakthrough. It provides long-term, customised global plans for emerging artists during crucial moments in their careers. This support includes video and audio content, global marketing, increased visibility across Amazon Music playlists and programming and high-profile Amazon Original tracks available only on Amazon Music.
Nominees attend The Ivors and the winner will receive a dedicated Ivor Novello and join a roll call of songwriting greats.
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CAT BURNS
Cat Burns was well-named. The stealthy, slowburn success of her song Go – first released in 2020 but one of the biggest-selling singles of 2022, and a song with a feline-like number of lives – perfectly illustrated the emotional depths of her writing. And there is a lot more where that came from: her supremely honest, relatable lyrics and knack for an enticing melody have already won her an army of fans, including Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. Burns’ songwriting fire will surely never go out.
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INES DUNN
Ines Dunn is a topline writer heading for the very top. She signed a publishing deal aged just 20 and has already made a name for herself as a fearless writer with a knack for crafting some of the most irresistible pop songs of her generation. She has already worked on Maisie Peters’ viral smash Not Another Rockstar and Mimi Webb’s global hit House On Fire and, with additional credits with the likes of Griff, Holly Humberstone, Josie Man and Mette Narrative, this is one topliner who will be at the summit for decades to come.
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TENDAI SENYANGE
Influenced by the storytelling of film and the music of Damon Albarn and Sade, tendai’s songwriting craft is built to last. You can see it in the way raw, authentic songs such as Not Around and Time In Our Lives have already inserted themselves into the fabric of people’s lives. It’s there in his stellar work as a creative executive on Stormzy’s This Is What I Mean album. And you just know it will still be there when this uniquely talented writer, producer and artist takes his rightful place at music’s top table.
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VENBEE
Being a spokesperson for your generation is a big ask for anyone, but Erin Doyle – better known as venbee – is shaping up to be just that. Certainly, she is already highly skilled in articulating the concerns of a nation, from mental health (Low Down) to addiction (her surprise Top 3 hit with Goddard, Messy In Heaven). Her drum and bass anthems speak the lingua franca of youth, making her a TikTok sensation, but with so much to come, venbee is built to last.
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VICTORIA CANAL
Victoria Canal had lived all over the world before settling in the UK, but it was when the planet shut down that her songwriting opened up. Already a burgeoning talent, lockdown and her grief at a close relative’s incurable illness saw her tap into the full range of emotions. An online songs series attracted praise from all quarters and mentorship from Jon Hopkins and Coldplay’s Chris Martin, while the deeply personal work on her Elegy EP means that it’s now her songs’ turn to travel all over the globe.