Sam Smith shortlisted for Ivor Novello Award

Sam Smith won four Grammy Awards earlier this year

Sam Smith, George Ezra and Clean Bandit are in the running for the prize for the most played song of the past year at The Ivor Novello songwriting awards.

The most performed work category sees Sam Smith's hit Stay With Me nominated alongside George Ezra's Budapest and Rather Be by Clean Bandit.

The annual awards, now in their 60th year, are voted for by songwriters.

Little-known songwriter James Napier leads the nominations after co-writing both Stay With Me and Rather Be.

The latter, which Napier wrote with Clean Bandit's Jack Patterson, is also shortlisted for best contemporary song.

Known as Jimmy Napes, the hitmaker said his three nominations were "a tremendous honour".

Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne's track Rather Be was the second biggest selling hit of 2014 in the UK

Napier's nomination for Stay With Me sees him listed alongside Sam Smith and fellow writer William Phillips.

However, there is no room for veteran musicians Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, who were given a writing credit on Stay With Me in January because of similarities with their 1989 track I Won't Back Down.

Under rules set by the British Society of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca), Lynne and Petty are not eligible because they each received less than 15% of the writing credit.

Speaking after the nominations, Napier said he and his co-writers had not heard I Won't Back Down before Petty and Lynne approached them.

"We were unfamiliar with the song and when it was brought to our attention we had to hold our hands up because there was a similarity in the melody," he told the BBC.

"It was amicably settled but it was a bit of a shock to us because we didn't know the record."

'Healthy' talent

Meanwhile, Rather Be is up for best contemporary song alongside alt-J's Every Other Freckle and Two Weeks, performed by FKA Twigs.

Hozier's Take Me to Church is nominated for best song musically and lyrically, as is Above The Clouds of Pompeii by Bear's Den. The shortlist is rounded off by Ben Howard's I Forget Where We Were.

In the best album category, Bombay Bicycle Club are nominated for So Long, See You Tomorrow, but face competition from Wild Beasts for Present Tense, and the eponymous debut album from Brighton two-piece Royal Blood.

Basca chairman Simon Darlow said the nominations reflected the "health and diversity" of British and Irish songwriting and composing.

He said: "These awards were created to raise the profile of our best creative talent and today's nominations, which include a host of fresh new writers, demonstrate that The Ivors continue to achieve this. Congratulations to everyone represented here today."

The winners will be named at a ceremony in London on 21 May.

Best song musically and lyrically

• Above The Clouds of Pompeii - Bear's Den

• I Forget Where We Were - Ben Howard

• Take Me to Church - Hozier

Best contemporary song

• Every Other Freckle - alt-J

• Rather Be - Clean Bandit, featuring Jess Glynne

• Two Weeks - FKA Twigs

Best album

• Royal Blood - Royal Blood

• Present Tense - Wild Beasts

• So Long, See You Tomorrow - Bombay Bicycle Club

PRS for Music most performed work

• Stay With Me - Sam Smith

• Budapest - George Ezra

• Rather Be - Clean Bandit, featuring Jess Glynne

Best original film score

• '71 - David Holmes

• Mr Turner - Gary Yershon

• The Boxtrolls - Dario Marianelli

Best television soundtrack

• The Honourable Woman - Natalie Holt and Martin Phipps

• The Mill (series 2) - Samuel Sim

• The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Beyond the Pale - Edmund Butt