Amy Allen Caity Krone Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment It's a fool's errand to try and predict what will become a hit in today's music business, but if you're looking for a cheat code, here's a tip: Check for Amy Allen's name in the writer credits. Over the course of the past seven years, the 33-year-old songwriter has been a key player in defining today's pop landscape, co-writing iconic songs like Harry Styles' "Adore You," Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" and "Manchild," Tate McRae's "Greedy" and Rosé and Bruno Mars' "APT," among many others. Related Stories Music Sabrina Carpenter Slams White House for Using 'Juno' in ICE Promo Video: "Evil and Disgusting" TV Taylor Swift Unveils 'The Eras Tour | The Final Show' Official Trailer With a flare for hooky melodies and a lyrical range that goes from cheeky to deeply intimate, Allen has a proven knack for minting huge songs, something she says comes from trying to avoid the hit formula altogether. "I'm the opposite of that," Allen tells me, sipping an iced coffee at a studio city café before she heads into a songwriting session for the day. "The biggest trap to fall into is trying to top the song that you've just done. The best you can do is tap back into what you love about music and completely forget about the song that's been out there. Once you start trying to chase trends or to top the last thing you did, it's the fast-track to making something that sounds insincere and dated." The music industry has venerated Allen for years, but she hit the mainstream last year as a co-writer on the entirety of Carpenter's breakout album, Short n' Sweet. With credits on songs of the summer "Espresso" and "Please Please Please," along with album cuts for Olivia Rodrigo and Justin Timberlake, Allen won her first individual Grammy for songwriter of the year at last year's ceremony. Allen managed to match that huge 2024 almost immediately with a co-write on "APT," the biggest global hit of 2025, along with writing credits on McRae's Grammy-nominated "Just Keep Watching" for F1, and "For Always" on Ed Sheeran's latest album, Play. And, of course, she co-wrote every song on Carpenter's Man's Best Friend, too, including the hit singles "Manchild" and "Tears." She's closing out the year with yet another hit, this one for fast-rising superstar Olivia Dean, whose "So Easy (To Fall in Love)" recently surpassed 1 million uses on TikTok. With another remarkable run, a second consecutive songwriter of the year win seems well within reach. She's up for four Grammys overall this year. "I find it hard to have an ego because it's such a team sport," Allen says of the possibility of a repeat. "Truly, all these years in, I still feel like I'm just a student of songwriting every day." Allen grew up in Windham, Maine, heading to Boston College for nursing school before transferring to the Berklee College of Music in pursuit of her music career. After graduating, she moved to New York looking for her big break fronting her band Amy & The Engine. She courted some label interest, but her ascent began in earnest when she switched her focus to writing for others instead. She earned her first big cut in 2018 with a co-writing credit on Selena Gomez's double-platinum "Back to You," and she cemented her hitmaker status later that year with Halsey's diamond-certified "Without Me," her first Number One on the Hot 100. "Everyone thinks the hardest thing is like getting your first big song, and in my experience, it was having the confidence within yourself to go out and fight for the second one," Allen says. "It's easy to succumb to imposter syndrome and that you got lucky and this won't happen again. That song helped me prove to myself I'm here to stay." For all her successful collaborations with an eclectic range of artists, she's perhaps best known for her potent partnership with Carpenter. The songs they've written together have redefined what a pop song is allowed to be. "Please Please Please" expanded pop's bounds in the track's chorus as Carpenter goes explicit, singing, "I beg you don't embarrass me, motherfucker." They pushed the envelope further this year with tracks like "Tears," which drops all semblance of subtlety as Carpenter sings in a staccato disco line about how she "gets wet at the thought of you being a responsible guy" before she finishes the chorus about how "tears run down my thighs." Those risks have become essential in today's music landscape, Allen says. "Sometimes songwriters are taught to write to the lowest common denominator, to dumb the song down so every single person can get it. So much of my career, I was indoctrinated into that mindset," she adds. "Writing with Sabrina broke me from that. She's the biggest powerhouse songwriter of all time. The common listener is not only cap