NEW YORK (AP) — Amy Allen won’t but be a family title, however her work lives in your mind rent-free. And it is grabbed the eye of the Grammys.
The 32-year-old songwriter has composed enduring hits with Halsey (“Without Me”), Selena Gomez (“Back to You”) and Tate McRae (“Greedy”). Her contributions to Harry Types’ “Harry’s House” earned her a Grammy for album of the yr in 2023. Different credit embody songs from Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Rosé, Reneé Rapp, Shawn Mendes, Leon Bridges and Justin Timberlake.
2024, nevertheless, was the yr Allen’s work turned inescapable — thanks largely to her collaboration with one other rising star. Allen co-wrote all 12 tracks of Sabrina Carpenter’s bubbly “Short n’ Sweet,” together with “Espresso,” an instantaneous music of the summer season that propelled Carpenter to a brand new stratosphere of stardom, and “Please Please Please,” the follow-up single that proved that her winking, quotable pop had endurance. (Everybody’s favourite lyric? “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another / I beg you, don’t embarrass me,” adopted by a rhyming profanity rasped with a smirk.)
This fall, Allen’s work despatched her to No. 1 on Billboard’s Sizzling 100 Songwriters chart for seven weeks — a formidable feat, contemplating her competitors contains artists like Carpenter herself and Kendrick Lamar.
“Once the songs are out of my hands, I just try to let them go to the world,” Allen informed The Related Press. It helps that the world has, in flip, embraced them.
When nominations for the 67th Grammy Awards have been introduced, Allen was within the midst of a writing session in London. The information got here in a textual content from her supervisor: She was nominated 4 instances, together with her second nomination within the songwriter of the yr, non-classical, class that has solely existed for 3 years. If she wins, she’s going to develop into the primary lady to take residence that trophy. “Short n’ Sweet” is up for album of the yr and “Please Please Please” for music of the yr.
Her fourth nod is within the music written for visible media class, for “Better Place,” a collaboration with NSYNC for “Trolls: Band Together.”
“People really gravitate toward her energy, as well as obviously her talent. That just goes without saying,” mentioned Julia Michaels, one other hit songwriter, artist and collaborator on “Short n’ Sweet,” of Allen.
“She just always brings a happy, optimistic attitude, that like, ‘anything is possible today,’” added Julian Bunetta, who additionally co-wrote and produced songs on Carpenter’s album. “The ease of that makes conversation come natural, which makes people open up and share details about their life.”
Allen’s path to skilled songwriting wasn’t essentially linear. Rising up in Maine, she joined a bluegrass band, a rock band and performed music at Irish pubs all through her teenagers. It wasn’t till her early 20s, when she transferred to Berklee School of Music after two years in nursing college at Boston School, that she realized being each a songwriter for others and a performing artist was a profession possibility.
“I had to really dig to realize, like, Carole King writes for other people, but she’s also an artist. And then it was later on, way later on, when I came across writers like Julia that were doing it professionally,” Allen mentioned. “I knew that it was like in my blood since I was really little, that it made me feel more connected to myself and the world around me in so many ways, more than anything else I ever experienced.”
“Espresso” got here collectively in a Paris studio. Allen, Bunetta, Carpenter and their co-writer Steph Jones “were kids having fun and laughing and playing,” Bunetta mentioned, explaining that joyful vitality produced the observe’s cheery sound and nonsensical zingers (“that’s that me espresso”).
Allen believes “Short n’ Sweet” discovered success by means of its quirky, playful pop — as a result of listeners need unpredictability, narrative songs with persona and perspective.
“The general public is so much smarter than a lot of songwriters and a lot of people in the entertainment industry, give them credit for,” Allen mentioned. “The artists that are winning are the ones that are willing to put everything out there, to say something so direct and so honest to them and so authentic that it’s almost impossible for the public to turn away.”
In October, she was out of the studio and on the street, opening for collaborator Jack Antonoff’s band Bleachers on a slate of dates throughout Europe, Los Angeles and New York. She carried out songs from “Amy Allen,” her self-titled debut album launched in September — a set of acoustic guitar melodies and percussion-led singer-songwriter pop.
Touring these songs got here with a realization. “I love writing for other artists and with other artists, and I will do that for a very long time,” Allen mentioned. “But it’s also so important for me to go back to how I fell in love with music, which was writing songs on my bed, writing little poems in my bedroom.”
“Whether she wants to be the biggest artist in the world or she wants to make whatever kind of music she makes, I have no doubt that she is capable of doing it,” mentioned Michaels, who launched her personal pop profession in 2017 together with her multi-platinum music “Issues.”
“I’m always going to go after both,” Allen mentioned.
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The 67th annual Grammy Awards might be held Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Area in Los Angeles. The present will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For extra protection, go to https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.