The 4 Non Blondes singer and guitarist received the special international award at the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards.
Linda Perry has said songwriters need to “embrace” artificial intelligence (AI) as the 4 Non Blondes singer and guitarist received the special international award at the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards.
The 61-year-old, who wrote hits such as Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful, Get The Party Started by Pink and What You Waiting For? recorded by Gwen Stefani, received the gong at London’s Grosvenor Hotel for the impact her career has had on the British music industry.
Perry told the Press Association: “To me, it’s just another tool that has shown up to make people’s life easier in some way.
“And I said earlier, like microwaves, when microwaves showed up, everybody thought it was the end of making dinner, and mums were just going to throw it in there, and poof, we were going to be in the Jetsons with this powder that turns into a turkey for Thanksgiving, and it’s not.
“It’s just this is the future, we have to embrace it, because if we try to run from the future, then we’re running from solution.
“So running towards it helps us come up with other solutions, how to navigate this, help other people understand what it does, because if we run the other way, then we’re leaving all the bad guys all alone in the circle figuring out how they can manipulate the whole system with AI.”
She was presented with her award by British artist James Blunt, who Perry signed to her Custard Records label in the 2000s, and the You’re Beautiful singer agreed with her that AI could be used for good in music.
He said: “It’s weird how people are so nervous about it because actually the music business has shifted and changed so often, just something to embrace.
“If I can’t hit the high notes, we just tell it to sing in the voice of James Blunt, that’s AI used, and it’ll do the rest, it carries the load.
“The other day I was recording a song, and I got my band to do the backing vocals, and they were all rubbish, and AI could do it really perfectly and it was much cheaper. What’s not to love about that?”
Presented by the Ivors Academy, the peer-judged award ceremony celebrates and recognises songwriting and composing.
