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Berklee grad Amy Allen up for new Songwriter of the Year Grammy
Amy Allen may be the greatest songwriter in the world.
Bold claim, but on Sunday Allen competes for the first-ever Grammy Award for Songwriter of the Year. Allen is Maine native and Berklee grad that New Englanders might remember as the leader of indie pop group Amy & the Engine a decade ago. If you haven’t heard of Allen, you have heard of the stars she’s co-written songs with.
Allen helped pen blockbusters and ballads with Lizzo, Harry Styles, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, King Princess and Alexander23. And that’s just the list from last year.
“It’s definitely surreal to be nominated for a Grammy in any capacity, but to be nominated for the first ever Songwriter of the Year category is just way beyond my wildest dreams,” Allen told the Herald. “It’s such a massive win for all songwriters that the category finally exists.”
The category is long overdue. From the jazz age through Motown, disco, boy band mania to today, songwriters have powered pop stars. Allen’s rise as a songwriter came in 2018 when she co-wrote Halsey’s No. 1 smash “Without Me.” It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since then.
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself, particularly in the past couple years, and that has allowed me to better identify and lean into what makes my writing uniquely me,” she said. “But I feel like for me, and probably a lot of other songwriters, when you leave the room after writing the song, you have very little control over if that song ever finds its way to the general public, so it’s kind if this learned technique for me to have the attitude that I’m grateful for each song I write, but also tomorrow is a new day, and I’ll write another one.”
Allen has a solo career. And it’s pretty striking — 2021 EP “AWW!” mixes modern pop and indie rock in tough and tender ways. But it took a lot of work to get the EP’s six songs out. She puts in an effort to find a balance between writing for herself and writing for others.
“Sometimes I will feel so in the zone of writing for myself that I cancel all other sessions, just so I can keep riding that wave,” she said. “Other times, I feel like the most cathartic and inspiring part of songwriting is getting to collaborate with others and help build something I would’ve never accomplished on my own. Every month is really different and I think that’s why I love it so much. I will say though that this past year I have spent predominantly on writing material for myself and I’m over the moon to start releasing those songs.”
This is great news. As well-suited as she is to help write Harry Styles’ “Adore You” and Selena Gomez’ “Back To You,” she’s long been on a road to writing her own story — a story spiked through with pop hooks — since she was a kid.
“I can distinctly remember playing with one of my sisters down in the basement of the house I grew up in, and having the idea to write a song for the first time,” she said. “I was probably seven or something like that, and I was just writing it acapella, and for months after that, we both couldn’t stop singing it.
“Not because it was good, because it definitely wasn’t,” she said, adding a laugh. “But it was so weirdly catchy… that was the first time I understood how powerful a catchy melody can be. I still catch myself singing it sometimes which is wild.”