Sam Smith, Clean Bandit and Hozier lead Ivor Novello 2015 nominations

Alt-J, FKA Twigs and George Ezra are also up for awards

Clean Bandit's "Rather Be" leads the nominations for this year's Ivor Novella awards in both the best contemporary song and most performed work categories.

Also in the running for most performed work is Sam Smith with “Stay with Me” and George Ezra with “Budapest”, both of whom were nominated for British Breakthrough act at the Brits earlier this year.

In the best contemporary song category, Clean Bandit will compete against Alt-J with “Every Other Freckle” and FKA Twigs with “Two Weeks”.

Both artists have previously been nominated for the Mercury Prizes in the past, Alt-J winning the award for their debut in 2012, while FKA Twigs lost out to Young Fathers in 2014 even though she was the bookies' favourite.

FKA Twigs performs during Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois. (Getty Images for Ketel One)

Nominations for the ‘best song musically and lyrically’ category include Hozier with “Take Me To Church”, Ben Howard with “I Forget Where We Were” and the relatively unknown Bear’s Den with “Above The Clouds Of Pompeii”.

Bear’s Den released their debut album in October having formed in 2012, but have been championed by folk monoliths Mumford & Sons.

Last year, London Grammar took home the award for their song "Strong".

London Grammar with their Best Song musically and lyrically award at the Ivor Novello Awards (PA)

BASCA Chairman, Simon Darlow, congratulated the nominees and said the awards “continue to reflect the health and diversity of British and Irish songwriting and composing.”

He added: “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.”

The full list of nominations are as follows:

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