Females Led by Adele Dominate Songwriting Shortlist

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer-songwriter Adele was nominated for four Ivor Novello Awards on Tuesday and female acts dominated the shortlist for the coveted songwriting honors.

Adele, who conquered the 2011 charts with her second album "21" and swept all before her at the Grammys and BRITs earlier this year, was nominated for best song for "Rolling in the Deep" which she co-wrote with Paul Epworth.

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Epworth was also involved in creating rival nominee "Shake It Out" performed by Florence + The Machine, while Ed Sheeran rounded out the category with his hit "The A Team".

Up for best contemporary song in the annual awards, now in their 57th year, was "Promises" performed by Nero, "The Wilhelm Scream" (James Blake) and "Video Games", sung by Lana Del Rey and co-written with Justin Parker.

The music industry regards the Ivor Novello awards highly because they champion writing talent that often goes unnoticed in the media and each category is selected by a separate set of qualified judges.

For Parker, his collaboration with Del Rey, and Video Games in particular, were major breakthroughs. Video Games' impact was helped by the video Del Rey made to go with it which became a viral hit.

"A year ago I was doing very little," he told reporters at the nominations. "I was writing songs without purpose, I would say".

He said he recorded 12 tracks with Del Rey in London during her frequent visits to the city, five of which appeared on her chart-topping major label debut "Born To Die" released earlier this year.

Parker recalled how Del Rey's record label initially rejected Video Games as a single.

"No one liked it," he said. "'It's not really a single is it?' It's the same old story (with the music industry).

"I think the video changed everybody's mind. It just took off. They had no choice, they had to release it -- it was forced upon them."

Parker said the domination of female performers at the Ivor Novello nominations for songs released in 2011 was nothing new.

"The music business has been like that for a few years now. Without Adele, Lana perhaps would not have happened," he added, underlining the British singer's importance in turning musical tastes to what he called "classic songwriting".

The Ivor Novello awards, presented by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, honor entries that have at least one third input from British or Irish musicians.

The prizes will be handed out on May 17 in London.

Following is a full list of nominees:

Best song musically and lyrically:

- "Rolling In The Deep"; written by Adele Adkins/Paul Epworth; performed by Adele

- "Shake It Out"; written by Paul Epworth/Kid Harpoon/Florence Welch; performed by Florence + The Machine

- "The A Team"; written and performed by Ed Sheeran

Best contemporary song:

- "Promises"; written by Joseph Ray/Daniel Stephens/Alana Watson; performed by Nero

- "The Wilhelm Scream"; written by James Blake/James Litherland; performed by James Blake

- "Video Games"; written by Lana Del Rey/Justin Parker; performed by Lana Del Rey

Best original film score:

- "Life In A Day" composed by Harry Gregson-Williams/Matthew Herbert

- "The First Grader" composed by Alex Heffes

- "We Need To Talk About Kevin" composed by Jonny Greenwood

Best television soundtrack:

- "Leonardo" composed by Mark Russell

- "Page Eight" composed by Paul Englishby

- "The Shadow Line" composed by Martin Phipps

PRS for Music most performed work:

- "Rolling In The Deep"

- "Someone Like You"; written by Adele Adkins/Dan Wilson; performed by Adele

- "The Flood"; written by Gary Barlow/Howard Donald/Jason Orange/Mark Owen/Robbie Williams; performed by Take That

Album award:

- "21"; written by Adele Adkins/Paul Epworth; performed by Adele

- "50 Words For Snow"; written and performed by Kate Bush

- "Let England Shake" written and performed by PJ Harvey.