Influential hitmaker Amy Allen has shared her experiences of working with Sabrina Carpenter and Ed Sheeran, as well as the misconceptions of life as a songwriter, in an interview with Music Week.
Earlier this year, Allen became the first woman to win the Grammy for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical. She has again been nominated for Songwriter Of The Year for the 2026 Grammys, as well as being represented in the Song and Album Of The Year categories.
Allen co-wrote Sabrina Carpenter’s No.1 album Man’s Best Friend, had credits on every song on last year’s Short N’ Sweet and wrote on 2025 album releases by Ed Sheeran and Olivia Dean.
“I’m one of three sisters and I’m the youngest, so I’ve always been a born listener and a team player,” said Allen, speaking to Karen Bliss in the November edition of Music Week. “The thing that keeps me inspired to keep doing it is how I can work with somebody that’s country, or R&B, or pop. The thing that we all have in common are these core human experiences and emotions. Regardless of genre or age or how long they’ve been in the game, we all come back to the same things and find new ways to talk about those.
“I work with Sabrina all the time and just get to pick up where we left off and talk about these really human things. It’s cathartic and grounding.”
Sabrina’s so talented and funny and it feels like two best friends sitting down. We have so many shared experiences
Amy Allen
Allen said that being a part of every song on Short N’ Sweet and Man’s Best Friend changed her relationship with music.
“Honestly, there are endless memories from both of those albums,” she said. “One minute we’d be talking about something really vulnerable, and then the next we’d be laughing hysterically. We’d look at each other like, ‘Oh my God, are we going to say that?! Okay, we’re going to say that.’ Sabrina’s so talented and funny and it feels like two best friends sitting down. We have so many shared experiences.
“So many women, and people in general, can tap into wanting to trust somebody, and that person giving you very little reason to trust them, but you want to keep trusting them, so you keep putting your faith in them. The self-awareness that she has to be able to put out a song like Manchild, which is beautiful and melodic, but also filled with witty remarks and pokes fun at herself as well, it takes such a special artist to pull that off.”
As a longtime fan of Ed Sheeran, Allen said it was “amazing” to work with the singer-songwriter for the first time and contribute to the track For Always on his eighth studio album Play, which charted at No.1 last month.
“Some of his songs are some of the best written pop songs ever, so getting to be a collaborator was incredible,” she said. “He’s in a place in his life that is really different to a lot of artists that I work with. He has a beautiful family, he’s a father and a husband. I’m not in that stage of my life. I’m not married and I don’t have children, so that was really nice.
“He can write big up-tempo bangers like Shape Of You, but he also is a really honest, vulnerable man and songwriter. He was ready to have a song on the record that felt really heartfelt and was an ode to his loved ones. I had done some harmonies on it in the UK, then when Ed asked me if I wanted to add some more, I was over the moon because to get to do any background vocal with Ed Sheeran is amazing, let alone on a song that I really love.”
A lot of people think of [songwriting] as a glamorous lifestyle. It can be lucrative when you get to a certain point, but for 99% of songwriters, it’s really hard
Amy Allen
Other recent Allen co-writes include Apt by Rosé and Bruno Mars, and Handlebars by Dua Lipa and Jennie Kim. She also has a credit on Olivia Dean’s rapturously received second LP The Art Of Loving. Allen saluted Dean as a “10 out of 10”.
“I absolutely love her,” she said. “She’s a phenomenally talented artist and songwriter; so genuine, intimate and real and I loved getting to write with her.
“I’ve also worked with Charli XCX, Niall Horan, one of my dearest friends, and Sam Smith, who I’ve been close with for ages and worked with many times. Even a lot of American artists that I work with have been wanting to write in the UK, so I’ve really got to spend a lot of time here.”
Allen also offered her opinion on major UK record labels committing to introduce a £75 per diem and cover expenses for songwriters attending their writing sessions. Announced in July, the move for daily expense payments by labels was hailed as a “landmark step to help sustain and support songwriters” by the Ivors Academy.
“Per diems sound great, as long as it’s in addition to what the writer will be getting anyway, in terms of publishing and things like that,” she said. “There are so many phenomenally talented songwriters out there that can’t really ever fully get both feet in the door because they are financially struggling. They could be doing six sessions a week, but they’re doing one a month because they have to be working multiple jobs.
“I feel like a lot of people think of it as a glamorous lifestyle. It can be lucrative when you get to a certain point, but for 99% of songwriters, it’s really hard. Or, you sign a deal that seems really great one minute and you get a bulk of money, but a lot of people don’t fully recognise that is all you’re going to get paid until you recoup your deal. And some people don’t recoup the deal for 12 years.”
Subscribers can read the full interview with Allen and her team at Warner Chappell Music here.