The winners of the prestigious Ivor Novello Songwriting Awards have been announced and though as expected Adele was top of the pile on a couple of occasions, she far from had it her own way as she forced to settle for second best in a couple of categories that many might've expected she would win.
True to form Adele took the songwriter of the year award, whilst her song 'Rolling In The Deep' was judged to have been the most performed work in 2011. Surprise came though when Ed Sheeran beat 'Rolling In The Deep' and Florence and the Machine's 'Shake It Out' with 'The A-Team' to take the best song musically and lyrically. A bigger surprise then followed in the best album category when she was snubbed in favour of Mercury-prize winner PJ Harvey, who won the category with 'Let's England Shake.'
Commercially at least, Adele has been head and shoulders ahead of her competition for over 15 months now, with '21' selling over 18 million copies worldwide and thus becoming the best-selling album of 2011 and so far this calendar year. It's Harvey who has consistently been the critics' choice though, with Adele also losing out in the Mercury's. In the honorary awards section, Take That took an outstanding contribution gong, with Spandeau Ballet's Gary Kemp taking the outstanding song collection award and Siouxsie Sioux winning the Ivro's inspiration award.