Pioneering songwriter will receive award in London

The Ivors Academy has revealed Sting as the latest songwriter to become an Academy Fellow, the highest honor the Academy bestows. He will receive the award at The Ivors on May 18th in London. The Academy also reveals Amazon Music as the new title sponsor of The Ivors in a collaboration that will amplify and scale the awards’ recognition and celebration of songwriters globally.

Sting becomes the 23rd Fellow that the Academy has inducted in its 79-year history, an honor reserved for those who have truly reshaped and redefined the art and craft of music creation. He joins a roster of songwriter greats including Sir Paul McCartney, Kate Bush CBE and Joan Armatrading MBE, and follows on from Peter Gabriel who received the award in 2022.

With over 100 million albums sold throughout his career from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist, Sting is one of Britain’s most successful, accomplished, and pioneering songwriters. Among his countless accolades, he has won seven Ivor Novellos, including the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. From penning classics like “Every Breath You Take” to pioneering genre-bending collaborations, Sting, managed by Martin Kierszenbaum/Cherrytree Music Company, is known as a musical explorer who has written some of the most beloved rock songs of all time, whilst always pushing the boundaries of his art.

“Of all the awards in the world of music, The Ivors are for me, the most prestigious,” Sting says of the honor. “Songwriting is a skilled craft and The Ivors Academy are its guild. So, I am delighted and honoured to be offered this Fellowship of the Academy, joining and acknowledging this extraordinary group of fellow songwriters, and all of those who went before us.”

To commemorate the honor, an unheard, Amazon Original demo of Sting’s 2021 single “If It’s Love,” taken from his latest album The Bridge, is being released exclusively via Amazon Music. This release represents the seventh installment of the newly launched demos program, which provides Amazon Music customers with the exclusive opportunity to hear demos of artists’ and songwriters’ popular songs before their records became hits. Previous demo releases include award-winning, Platinum-certified songs by Walker Hayes and Maren Morris.

The multi-year global deal between The Ivors Academy and Amazon Music showcases the latter’s ongoing commitment to supporting songwriters. Amazon Music will offer its cross-category capabilities to bring both iconic and emerging music creators to the forefront through exclusive content offerings, as well as live performances, an immersive red carpet and backstage interviews that will be livestreamed on the Amazon Music UK Twitch channel in 2023.