Amy Allen won’t but be a family identify, 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 (“With out Me”), Selena Gomez (“Again to You”) and Tate McRae (“Grasping”). Her contributions to Harry Types’ “Harry’s Home” earned her a Grammy for album of the 12 months in 2023. Different credit embrace songs from Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Rosé, Reneé Rapp, Shawn Mendes, Leon Bridges and Justin Timberlake.

2024, nonetheless, was the 12 months 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 “Brief n’ Candy,” together with “Espresso,” an on the spot tune 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 factor, my ego’s one other / I urge 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 Scorching 100 Songwriters chart for seven weeks — a formidable feat, contemplating her competitors consists of artists like Carpenter herself and Kendrick Lamar.

“As soon as the songs are out of my fingers, I simply attempt to allow them to go to the world,” Allen instructed The Related Press. It helps that the world has, in flip, embraced them.

When nominations for the 67th Grammy Awards had 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 12 months, non-classical, class that has solely existed for 3 years. If she wins, she’s going to turn into the primary girl to take dwelling that trophy. “Brief n’ Candy” is up for album of the 12 months and “Please Please Please” for tune of the 12 months.

Her fourth nod is within the tune written for visible media class, for “Higher Place,” a collaboration with NSYNC for “Trolls: Band Collectively.”

“Folks actually gravitate towards her vitality, in addition to clearly her expertise. That simply goes with out saying,” mentioned Julia Michaels, one other hit songwriter, artist and collaborator on “Brief n’ Candy,” of Allen.

“She simply at all times brings a cheerful, optimistic perspective, that like, ‘something is feasible in the present day,’” added Julian Bunetta, who additionally co-wrote and produced songs on Carpenter’s album. “The benefit of that makes dialog come pure, which makes individuals open up and share particulars 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 Faculty of Music after two years in nursing faculty at Boston Faculty, that she realized being each a songwriter for others and a performing artist was a profession choice.

“I needed to actually dig to appreciate, like, Carole King writes for different individuals, however she’s additionally an artist. After which it was afterward, manner afterward, once I got here throughout writers like Julia that had been doing it professionally,” Allen mentioned. “I knew that it was like in my blood since I used to be actually little, that it made me really feel extra linked to myself and the world round me in so some ways, greater than anything I ever skilled.”

“Espresso” got here collectively in a Paris studio. Allen, Bunetta, Carpenter and their co-writer Steph Jones “had been youngsters having enjoyable and laughing and enjoying,” Bunetta mentioned, explaining that joyful vitality produced the monitor’s cheery sound and nonsensical zingers (“that is that me espresso”).

Allen believes “Brief n’ Candy” discovered success by its quirky, playful pop — as a result of listeners need unpredictability, narrative songs with character and perspective.

“Most people is a lot smarter than a whole lot of songwriters and lots of people within the leisure business, give them credit score for,” Allen mentioned. “The artists which can be profitable are those which can be keen to place the whole lot on the market, to say one thing so direct and so trustworthy to them and so genuine that it’s nearly inconceivable for the general public to show away.”

In October, she was out of the studio and on the highway, 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 like writing for different artists and with different artists, and I’ll do this for a really very long time,” Allen mentioned. “But it surely’s additionally so necessary for me to return to how I fell in love with music, which was writing songs on my mattress, writing little poems in my bed room.”

“Whether or not she desires to be the largest artist on the planet or she desires to make no matter type of music she makes, I’ve little doubt that she is able to doing it,” mentioned Michaels, who launched her personal pop profession in 2017 along with her multi-platinum tune “Points.”

“I’m at all times going to go after each,” Allen mentioned.

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The 67th annual Grammy Awards will likely 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.