By newsfirstusa 
NEW YORK — Amy Allen may now not but be a family title, however her paintings lives on your mind rent-free. And it’s 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 book of the 12 months in 2023. Alternative credit come with songs from Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Rosé, Reneé Rapp, Shawn Mendes, Leon Bridges and Justin Timberlake.
2024, on the other hand, used to be the 12 months Allen’s paintings turned into inescapable — thank you in immense phase to her collaboration with any other emerging big name. Allen co-wrote all 12 tracks of Sabrina Wood worker’s bubbly “Short n’ Sweet,” together with “Espresso,” an speedy song of the summer that propelled Wood worker to a unutilized stratosphere of stardom, and “Please Please Please,” the follow-up unmarried 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 via a rhyming profanity rasped with a smirk.)
This autumn, Allen’s paintings despatched her to Negative. 1 on Billboard’s Scorching 100 Songwriters chart for seven weeks — an noteceable feat, bearing in mind her festival comprises artists like Wood worker herself and Kendrick Lamar.
“Once the songs are out of my hands, I just try to let them go to the world,” Allen instructed The Related Press. It is helping that the arena has, in flip, embraced them.
When nominations for the 67th Grammy Awards have been introduced, Allen used to be in the middle of a writing consultation in London. The inside track got here in a textual content from her supervisor: She used to be nominated 4 occasions, together with her 2d nomination within the songwriter of the 12 months, non-classical, division that has simplest existed for 3 years. If she wins, she is going to turn out to be the primary girl to speed house that trophy. “Short n’ Sweet” is up for book of the 12 months and “Please Please Please” for tune of the 12 months.
Her fourth nod is within the tune written for optical media division, 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, any other collision 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 Wood worker’s book. “The ease of that makes conversation come natural, which makes people open up and share details about their life.”
Allen’s trail to skilled songwriting wasn’t essentially straight. Rising up in Maine, she joined a bluegrass band, a rock band and performed track at Irish pubs all over her teenagers. It wasn’t till her early 20s, when she transferred to Berklee Faculty of Tune later two years in nursing college at Boston Faculty, that she learned being each a songwriter for others and a appearing artist used to be 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 in combination in a Paris studio. Allen, Bunetta, Wood worker and their co-writer Steph Jones “were kids having fun and laughing and playing,” Bunetta mentioned, explaining that blissful power produced the monitor’s cheery pitch and nonsensical zingers (“that’s that me espresso”).
Allen believes “Short n’ Sweet” discovered good fortune thru its abnormal, playful pop — as a result of listeners need unpredictability, narrative songs with character and point of view.
“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 used to be out of the studio and at the highway, opening for collaborator Jack Antonoff’s band Bleachers on a slate of dates throughout Europe, Los Angeles and Pristine York. She carried out songs from “Amy Allen,” her self-titled debut book excused in September — a number of acoustic guitar melodies and percussion-led singer-songwriter pop.
Traveling the ones 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 introduced her personal pop profession in 2017 along with her multi-platinum tune “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 display will wind on CBS and current on Paramount+. For extra protection, talk over with https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.