Tom Gray, Ivors Academy chair, has spoken about the crucial role of the organisation and its songwriting ceremony in its 70th year.
Launched in 1956, The Ivors returned to the Grosvenor House, London on Thursday (May 22) for another celebration of exceptional achievements in songwriting and screen composition.
The Ivors Academy trade body, formerly known as British Academy of Songwriters Composers and Authors (BASCA), pre-dates the ceremony having been launched in 1944.
In his speech at this year’s ceremony, Gray reflected on the history of The Ivors.
“The year this started, Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller,” he said. “Heartbreak Hotel was released. This celebration of our craft is pretty much as old as rock and roll itself – when rebellion got crystallised in pop culture form. The Academy, run by music-makers for music-makers, and for which I have the privilege of being its elected chair, exists to protect and champion songwriters and composers. It is 81 years young, and our work is never done.”
Contracts evolve because enough people make enough polite noise
Tom Gray
Gray used the speech to emphasise the activism at the heart of the organisation and the wider community.
“We fight for things that, frankly, should already exist,” he told the audience. “Fair pay. Contract transparency. We fight for a better world, sing on weekends and – come Monday – find the world unchanged. But still – we show up. We tune up. We write songs that no one asked for. We persist not because it’s working, but because the alternative is a mundane and smothering silence where shame and servitude lurk.”
Gray, also a member of Gomez, challenged the notion that “artists should struggle, and suffer, and only succeed after death or at the mercy of an algorithm that believes the very depths of your soul is a good match for someone’s spin session and maybe it’s right”.
It follows the organisation’s support for calls by Raye and Chappell Roan for a sustainable future for music creators.
Gray also used the speech to urge songwriters to join the Ivors Academy and add their voice to its various causes.
“Contracts evolve because enough people make enough polite noise,” he said. “These victories can feel minor, often invisible. But they matter. They add up. They hum underneath everything like the predictable synth drone of a TV drama score.”
