British indie outfit Everything Everything and rapper Plan B lead the nominations for the Ivor Novello awards, it has been announced.
Manchester-based band Everything Everything, who have yet to have a top 40 single, are shortlisted for best album for Man Alive, and for best song musically and lyrically for MY KZ, UR BF.
Plan B is also up for best album for The Defamation of Strickland Banks, while his track She Said will vie with All the Lovers by Kylie Minogue and This Ain't A Love Song by Scouting for Girls for the most performed song.
Everything Everything formed in 2007 and were longlisted for the BBC's Sound of 2010 prize. The four-piece released Man Alive through Geffen in August last year, and the album peaked at 17 in the charts.
Plan B, aka Ben Drew, first achieved fame as a hoodie-clad rapper with the debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words before reinventing himself as a besuited soul singer for Strickland Banks.
In the best song category Everything Everything will be up against Spanish Sahara by Foals and Becoming a Jackal by Villagers. Foals, from Oxford, and Irish band Villagers were nominated for last year's Mercury prize, which was won by the xx, whose track Islands is shortlisted for best contemporary song.
Katy B and Tinie Tempah are the other artists gunning for best contemporary song, while Bombay Bicycle Club will do battle against Everything Everything and Plan B for best album.
The awards were established in honour of the composer and songwriter Ivor Novello in 1955, and seek to recognise the best British artists in both fields. The composers of the music for the fifth series of Agatha Christie's Marple on ITV, Channel 4's Any Human Heart, and Going Postal, Sky's adaptation of the novel from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, are competing for the best television soundtrack.
The 56th Ivor Novello awards ceremony will take place on Thursday 19 May at Grosvenor House. Last years' awards were dominated by Lily Allen, who won best song musically and lyrically, most performed song for The Fear, and the overall title of best songwriter.
