At this point, even we don’t know what it is. There’s just something in the air at this event.

The great and good of the British music industry gathered for the 2023 edition of The A&R Awards – the UK-focused ceremony presented by MBW, in association with Abbey Road Studios.

As ever, the event recognised and celebrated artistic and industry talent across songwriting, production, record labels, music publishers, talent management and more.

It all kicked off with an Oustanding Contribution award celebrating Lyor Cohen‘s 40 years in the business, presented by Cohen’s friend, Julie Greenwald.

From there, the magic moments just kept coming. Where to start?

Roy Eldridge (Icon), presented by his son, Sam. Jusnah Gadi winning the Trailblazer: Richard Antwi award. And then, of course, Tim and Danny.

Tim and Danny, man!

Big winners on the night included Songwriter Of The Year: the Sony Music Publishing-signed Lostboy (aka Peter Rycroft). Producer of the Year went to Catherine Marks for her work with Boygenius.

Warner Chappell UK – home to RAYE, Dave, and Stormzy amongst others – had a big night, winning Publisher Of The Year (in the ‘major’ publisher category), while the company’s Amber Davis, took home the A&R Of The Year (Pop) prize.

It was also a big night for Virgin Music Group (winning UK Artist/Label Services company, primarily judged on UK-sourced signings – which in VMG’s case over the past year included Rema/Mavin Records). And Atlantic Records UK took home Major Label for the second year in a row, reflecting its work with artists including Burna Boy, Fred Again, and Ed Sheeran.

In addition to our returning headline partner, Abbey Road Studios, supporters of this year’s A&R Awards include Centtrip, Hipgnosis Song Management, Luminate, Milk & Honey, PPL, PRS For Music, SoundCloud, Spotify, TikTok, Vevo, YouTube Shorts and YouTube Music.