NEW YORK (AP) — Amy Allen might not yet be a household name, but her work lives in your brain rent-free. And it's grabbed the attention of the Grammys.
The 32-year-old songwriter has composed enduring hits with Halsey (“Without Me”), Selena Gomez (“Back to You”) and Tate McRae (“Greedy”). Her contributions to Harry Styles' “Harry's House” earned her a Grammy for album of the year in 2023. Other credits include songs from Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Rosé, Reneé Rapp, Shawn Mendes, Leon Bridges and Justin Timberlake.
2024, however, was the year Allen's work became inescapable — thanks in large part to her collaboration with another rising star. Allen co-wrote all 12 tracks of Sabrina Carpenter’s bubbly “Short n’ Sweet,” including “Espresso,” an instant song of the summer that propelled Carpenter to a new stratosphere of stardom, and “Please Please Please,” the follow-up single that proved that her winking, quotable pop had staying power. (Everyone's favorite lyric? “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another / I beg you, don’t embarrass me,” followed by a rhyming profanity rasped with a smirk.)
This fall, Allen's work sent her to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters chart for seven weeks — an impressive feat, considering her competition includes artists like Carpenter herself and Kendrick Lamar.
“Once the songs are out of my hands, I just try to let them go to the world,” Allen told The Associated Press. It helps that the world has, in turn, embraced them.
When nominations for the 67th Grammy Awards were announced, Allen was in the midst of a writing session in London. The news came in a text from her manager: She was nominated four times, including her second nomination in the songwriter of the year, non-classical, category that has only existed for three years. If she wins, she will become the first woman to take home that trophy. “Short n’ Sweet” is up for album of the year and “Please Please Please” for song of the year.
Her fourth nod is in the song written for visual media category, for “Better Place,” a collaboration with NSYNC for “Trolls: Band Together.”
“People really gravitate toward her energy, as well as obviously her talent. That just goes without saying,” said Julia Michaels, another hit songwriter, artist and collaborator on “Short n’ Sweet,” of Allen.
“She just always brings a happy, optimistic attitude, that like, ‘anything is possible today,’” added Julian Bunetta, who also co-wrote and produced songs on Carpenter's album. “The ease of that makes conversation come natural, which makes people open up and share details about their life.”
Allen's path to professional songwriting wasn't necessarily linear. Growing up in Maine, she joined a bluegrass band, a rock band and played music at Irish pubs throughout her teens. It wasn’t until her early 20s, when she transferred to Berklee College of Music after two years in nursing school at Boston College, that she realized being both a songwriter for others and a performing artist was a career option.
“I had to really dig to realize, like, Carole King writes for other people, but she’s also an artist. And then it was later on, way later on, when I came across writers like Julia that were doing it professionally,” Allen said. “I knew that it was like in my blood since I was really little, that it made me feel more connected to myself and the world around me in so many ways, more than anything else I ever experienced.”
“Espresso” came together in a Paris studio. Allen, Bunetta, Carpenter and their co-writer Steph Jones “were kids having fun and laughing and playing,” Bunetta said, explaining that joyful energy produced the track's cheery sound and nonsensical zingers (“that's that me espresso”).
Allen believes “Short n’ Sweet” found success through its quirky, playful pop — because listeners want unpredictability, narrative songs with personality and perspective.
“The general public is so much smarter than a lot of songwriters and a lot of people in the entertainment industry, give them credit for,” Allen said. “The artists that are winning are the ones that are willing to put everything out there, to say something so direct and so honest to them and so authentic that it’s almost impossible for the public to turn away.”
In October, she was out of the studio and on the road, opening for collaborator Jack Antonoff’s band Bleachers on a slate of dates across Europe, Los Angeles and New York. She performed songs from “Amy Allen,” her self-titled debut album released in September — a collection of acoustic guitar melodies and percussion-led singer-songwriter pop.
Touring those songs came with a realization. “I love writing for other artists and with other artists, and I will do that for a very long time,” Allen said. “But it’s also so important for me to go back to how I fell in love with music, which was writing songs on my bed, writing little poems in my bedroom.”
“Whether she wants to be the biggest artist in the world or she wants to make whatever kind of music she makes, I have no doubt that she is capable of doing it,” said Michaels, who launched her own pop career in 2017 with her multi-platinum song “Issues.”
“I’m always going to go after both,” Allen said.
The 67th annual Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.
Amy Allen poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Amy Allen poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Amy Allen poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Amy Allen poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cheers broke out early Wednesday as Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee signed off on the GOP tax breaks bill after a grueling round-the-clock session that pushed President Donald Trump's package past overwhelming Democratic opposition.
But there's still more work to do.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also worked past midnight trying to resolve issues with Trump's plan. Opposition is mounting from various corners of the GOP majority as he tries to muscle the party's signature package to passage without any votes from Democrats.
On the one hand, the conservative leader of the Freedom Caucus derides the new Medicaid work requirements as a “joke” that do not go far enough at cost-cutting. Meanwhile, a handful of GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states are refusing to support the measure unless changes are made to give deeper state and local tax deductions, called SALT, for their constituents back home.
"To say we have a gulf is an understatement," said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leader of the conservative wing.
Roy said there is “a significant number of us who could not bless this product” in its current form.
Nevertheless, momentum is building toward an end-of-the-week inflection point to stitch together the sprawling package Friday at the Budget Committee. That means combining hundreds of pages of bill text covering $5 trillion in tax breaks and at least $1.5 trillion in spending reductions on Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs to deliver Trump's second-term legislative priority.
Democrats decry the package as a give-away to the wealthy at the expense of safety net programs that millions of Americans rely on. But Johnson insists the Republican majority is on track to pass the package by Memorial Day, May 26, sending it to the Senate where Republicans are crafting their own version. With his slim majority, he can only afford a few defections from his ranks.
“We’re still on target,” Johnson said at the Capitol. “The American people are counting on us.”
Democrats also stayed up all night forcing marathon public hearings. One at the House Energy and Commerce Committee was still going more than 26 hours later before finishing Wednesday afternoon.
Later Wednesday evening, the House Agriculture Committee handling the food aid cuts wrapped up its work too, but only after the Republican chairman abruptly shut down debate on dozens of remaining amendments from Democrats.
All told, Democrats proposed hundreds of amendments trying to change the package, with dozens of votes that largely failed.
“It is a cruel, mean, rotten bill,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., as the Agriculture panel debated changes to the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said at least 7.6 million fewer people would have health insurance with reductions to Medicaid, and likely more with additional changes to the Affordable Care Act.
The CBO also gave lawmakers a preliminary analysis showing that 3 million fewer people each month would participate in the SNAP food program under the changes proposed.
More than 70 million Americans rely on Medicaid for health care, and about 40 million use SNAP.
The Republicans are targeting Medicaid and SNAP for a combined $1 trillion in cuts as a way to offset the costs of the tax package, but also to achieve GOP goals of reining in the social safety net programs.
Most of the cost-savings would come from imposing stiffer work requirements for those receiving the health care and food assistance, meaning fewer people would qualify for the aid. The legislation would raise from 54 to 64 the age of able-bodied adults without dependents who would have to work to qualify for SNAP. It also would also require some parents to work to qualify for the benefits once their children are older than 7, instead of 18. Under current law, those recipients must work or participate in a work program for 80 hours a month.
The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., insists the changes would “strengthen and sustain” Medicaid for the future, and are the kind of “common sense” policies Trump promised voters.
But Democrats told repeated stories of their constituents struggling to access health care. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., revealed his own diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing and the sticker shock of health costs.
One of the most difficult issues for Johnson has been the more localized debate over state and local taxes as he works to come up with a compromise for New York, California and New Jersey lawmakers. They have rejected an offer to triple the deduction cap, now at $10,000, to $30,000 for married couples.
The speaker met with lawmakers Tuesday and talks continued into Wednesday.
Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said it was cordial, but there was no deal. “More sizzle than steak in that meeting,” he said late Tuesday.
“The reality is you need 218 votes to pass a bill and the way this bill is currently constructed, it will not have that because it does not adequately the issue of SALT,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.
The lawmakers believe they have leverage in the talks because without a deal, the $10,000 limit established under the 2017 tax bill expires at the end of the year and reverts to no cap at all.
But as Johnson and the lawmakers edge closer to a SALT deal, the conservatives are balking that their priorities must also be met.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said he’s a no for now, but would be working to improve the bill so that he could support it.
The conservatives argue that the tax breaks without deeper spending cuts will pile onto the deficit, and they worry that the Medicaid reductions do not go far enough in rolling back federal funds to expand the Affordable Care Act. They also want the work requirements, which don't take effect until Jan. 1, 2029, after Trump has left office, to start sooner.
"Basically Republicans are enforcing Obamacare, which is a surreal situation to me,” Burlison said.
Republicans are racing to extend Trump's tax breaks, which are set to expire later this year, while adding the new ones he campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and others.
A new analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that most tax filers would see a lower tax rates under the proposal, except those at the lowest rates, who earn less than $15,000 a year. Their average tax rate would go up.
Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Mary Clare Jalonick and Leah Askarinam contributed to this report.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
