so far ....

december 2009....
Amanda has been nominated for two Grammys. The first is as co-producer of two tracks on Beyoncé's album "I Am... Sasha Fierce" which is nominated as Album of the Year. The other nomination is for "Once In A Lifetime", which Amanda co-wrote with Scott McFarnon, Ian Dench, Jody Street, James Dring and Beyoncé. The song was the title track from Beyoncé's movie "Cadillac Records" and is nominated for the Best Song Written for a Motion Picture Award.
The Awards Ceremony will take place on 31 January in Los Angeles.

february 2009....
Amanda starts 2009 with a major career shift. Later this month she takes up the position of President, Epic Records, USA. Follow this link to the press release.

The second half of 2008 has seen the release of Beyoncé's album, "I am Sasha... Fierce" containing three Amanda Ghost songs which represent a radical change of style for the artist : "Disappear", which was co-written with Ian Dench, Dave McCracken and Hugo, Amanda's friend and long-term collaborator, who has recently signed his own record deal with Jay-Z's Roc Nation label; "Ave Maria", written with Ian, Stargate and Makeba Riddick, and "Satellites" a song she and Ian wrote with Dave McCracken over three years ago. Click here to listen to/buy Amanda's version. She also co-wrote, with Ian, Scott McFarnon and the Rural, the end title song from Beyoncé's just-released "Cadillac Records" movie. The song - "Once In A Lifetime" - has just been nominated for a Golden Globe award. She has also worked with Ian Brown, Kelly Rowland, Britney Spears, Beverley Knight, Basement Jaxx and Jack Splash. Amanda also embarked on a new tv career, appearing as a guest panellist on Orange Unsigned on T4 and attracting a lot of comments (mainly favourable) for her forthright comments .....

june 2008....The Ivors Awards ceremony duly arrived last Thursday. Unlike other such Awards shows, the Ivors are at great pains to keep the identities of the winners secret, but for experienced Ivors-watchers there are often tell-tale hints. In this case there were none and Amanda's and Ian's surprise and delight at winning the Best Selling British Song category were genuine. This was Amanda's third Ivor (she won two for "You're Beautiful") but Ian's first (although he was nominated in 1991 for "Unbelievable" the international hit he wrote for EMF, which was beaten by Seal's "Crazy"). Having celebrated enthusiastically with close mates and collaborators Stargate (with whom they shared the award), Hugo, Dave McCracken and Paul O'Duffy, Amanda and Ian are now on a short vacation, Ian gambling away his royalties on camel racing in Egypt and Amanda in Jamaica where she is staying at Goldeneye, the legendary former home of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond.... .... which leads naturally on to a rumour that has received wide press coverage - that Amanda and Ian have been asked to write the theme song for the next Bond extravaganza, to be sung by their friend Beyoncé. It should be stressed that a rumour is all it is at this point and Amanda's holiday destination is purely coincidental, but .... wouldn't it be great?

may 2008....Now fully recovered from her wedding and happily settled into married life, Amanda is at present in New York working with Ian on tracks for Beyonce and Daniel Merriweather.

On the way back to London they're dropping off at the Bahamas to work with another artist they have both admired for ever - Shakira! The other big news is that Amanda and Ian have been nominated for a prestigious Ivor award, in the Best Selling British Category, for "Beautiful Liar" (which was co-written with their favourite - and very non-British - Stargate production team). The other nominees for the award are Mika and Amy Winehouse (for Rehab, which by a quirk of the Ivors rules has the advantage of having been on sale for what seems like an eternity. Talking of Mika, Amanda and Ian met the man himself in NY this week and are planning to work with him on his next album... Back to the Ivors; named after the celebrated Ivor Novello, the leading exponent of "light", i.e. pop, music in the 20s and 30s, the Ivors are the awards most coveted by musicians, because they honour the truly inspirational, and often overlooked, heroes of the music business - the songwriters (unlike the Brits and the Grammys, which are firmly in the commercial arena). "Amanda is already a two times Ivor winner, for "You're Beautiful" last year. This is Ian's second nomination ; his song "Unbelievable", which was written when he was the spring chicken leader of EMF in the 1990s and which went on to become a new wave standard, was nominated but lost out to Seal's "Crazy".

april 2008 .... Amanda was fully occupied in the second half of March preparing for her wedding which took place in Seville last weekend and managed to combine a serious and moving ceremony with the sort of bacchanalian party one would expect from a congregation which included Liam and Keith from the Prodigy, Natalie Appleton, Katie Brand, producers Paul O'Duffy and Dave McCracken and, of course, Boy George.

She did however find time to appear on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, when she performed "Blood On The Line" with Ian Dench and also had an entertaining off-air conversation with Radio 4's divorce expert, on the subject of the McCartney/Mills tragi-comedy which had reached its dénouement that day. (you can listen to the show in the 'podcasts' section)

Amanda is going to spend her honeymoon in the recording studio, with among others, Livvi Franc and Johnny Flynn, producers Stargate and the Rural, and in May writing and recording with the legendary Chrissie Hynde.

march 2008 .... Amanda and Ian started the month working in London with Melanie, a great new artist signed to Steve Rifkind's SRC label. They worked on new tracks in the London studio of Future Cut, with whom they have developed a great creative relationship. They are currently in New York at Beyonce's request, working on tracks for her upcoming album. They are working with various track producers, including their favourite collaborators, the Rural, Stargate and (again) Future Cut. Then it's back to London again to work with Candie Payne (the Mark Ronson cohort formerly signed to Deltasonic/SonyBMG and currently in label negotiations for the distribution of her next album), and Hugo, whose album was co-produced by Amanda and Ian. Amanda then takes a well-earned break until after her wedding in April.

february '08 .... Amanda and Ian had a great week in La La Land, although they didn't win the Grammy for Beautiful Liar (pipped by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, which is at least a cool duo to lose to) and most of the people they went to work with didn't materialise. However they did some great work with a new production/writing team - Makeba and Chuck Prophet and made connections with some true r&b royalty - Chaka Khan, John Legend and Aretha Franklin - which bodes well for some very interesting collaborations in future. They also went to some great parties, which are what the Grammys are really all about - one highlight was Mark Ronson telling Jay-Z that Amanda is the best songwriter he's ever worked with. They were seated at a table with Stevie Wonder at the time - heady stuff (thanks Mark; cheque's in the post). They're back in London now putting finishing touches to the amazing Johnny Flynn tracks they've been working on and, in Amanda's case, getting ready for her wedding in April. PS check out the YOU magazine profile of Amanda - here.

like Frankie, Amanda and Ian have gone to Hollywood - to attend the Grammys Awards Ceremony, where Beautiful Liar, which they co-wrote with Stargate, is nominated for an award.  They'll be taking advantage of the opportunity to work with J R Rotem, who has produced stellar talents like Destiny's Child, Britney and Jennifer Lopez (as well as Paris Hilton) and Salaam Remi, hip hop producer and keyboard player, who has worked with Nas, the Fugees and a Tribe Called Quest, as well as Ms Dynamite and Amy Winehouse.  Finally they'll be working with Will I. Am, member of Black Eyes Peas and producer of Fergie among others. Will recently wrote "Yes We Can" in support of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  On their return Amanda will be working with Candie Payne whose break-through album "I Wish I Could Have Loved You More" was released on Deltasonic last year.  They will also continue to work on the tracks they started in January with Johnny Flynn (which are sounding fantastic and unlike anything which has gone before). Amanda and Ian are also putting the finishing touches to their Download Collection, further details of which you will find elsewhere on this site.

  january '08 .... sees Amanda in the studio with a variety of interesting artists and producers. Immediately upon her return from her NY break in Mexico with her family, including her new baby Gia, She and Ian kicked off with Mark Ronson, writing and producing Daniel Merriweather, who had a major hit last year as guest vocalist on Mark's "Stop Me". During the month she is also working with Johnny Flynn, a new signing to Mercury records who she feels is as talented as anyone she has ever worked with (which is really saying something!). She will also be working with Future Cut and Livvi Franc, a talented Barbadian singer, signed to Jive records and Island artist Remi Nicole. Then it's off to the Grammys, where she and Ian are nominated for "Beautiful Liar". They will also take the opportunity to work with LA luminaries, including JR Rotem and Will I. Am.