Harry Styles and Rosalía turned up in London last night for the 71st annual Ivor Novello Awards, where the spotlight stayed on the craft of songwriting and composing and not on the usual red-carpet spectacle. Styles arrived from his multi-night Together, Together tour residency in Amsterdam. Rosalía came during a brief gap between her European tour and the start of her North American leg.
The night’s biggest prize for Rosalía was international songwriter of the year for LUX, an award the Ivors Academy used to salute an artist it said had pushed the boundaries of global songwriting and experimental pop. She took the stage at London’s Grosvenor House to accept it. Styles, a surprise guest, presented Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke with the Academy Fellowship, one of the evening’s key honors.
The Ivor Novello Awards are peer-judged, which gives them a different weight from prizes decided by sales or streaming numbers. They exist to recognize the writing itself — the structure of a song, the arrangement, the line that lands, the composition that holds. That focus gave the evening a sharper edge than a standard industry gathering, especially with two of the world’s most visible touring artists crossing calendars and countries to be there.
Rosalía used her acceptance speech to widen the frame beyond her own win. She spoke of “countless outstanding writers which will not be recognized as they deserve because they aren’t middle-class white Europeans, whose upbringing has been sufficiently stable for them to turn a hint of talent into a successful career.” It was a pointed remark at a ceremony built to honor songwriters, and it shifted the room from celebration to the uneven realities of who gets heard in popular music.
Fashion, as always at awards season, carried its own message. Rosalía wore a custom Calvin Klein Collection dress inspired by a fall 2026 runway look, paired with pale pink I Love Vivier pumps by Roger Vivier. Styles chose Yves Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, in a white striped shirt, a sheer knit sweater, black suit trousers, a leather belt and black leather shoes. Zoë Kravitz is a house ambassador for the label, a reminder that the event’s style cues were closely watched as well as its honors.
What made the night stand out was not just the names on stage but the timing around them. Both artists are in the middle of demanding touring schedules, and both were willing to cross borders for a ceremony that prizes writing over spectacle. That is the reason the Ivor Novellos still matter: they can pull global stars into a room and make the case that the song itself is still the thing worth traveling for. In London last night, that case was made plainly.
