Sony Music Publishing and its songwriters were celebrated with top honors at the 2026 BMI Pop Music Awards, held on May 12 in Los Angeles, CA.
Sony Music Publishing was named BMI’s Pop Publisher of the Year, with SMP songwriters awarded across twenty-four of the past year’s most performed pop songs.
Additionally, Ink, Sounwave, MTech and Sam Dew took home the coveted Song of the Year award for the #1 hit song “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar.
SMP’s winning pop songs include “Abracadabra” (Lady Gaga), “30 For 30” (J. White Did It), “Azizam” (Ed Sheeran), “Bad Dreams” (Julian Bunetta, Mikky Ekko), “Diet Pepsi” (Addison Rae), “Apple” (Linus “Lotus IV” Wiklund, Noonie Bao), “Ordinary” (Mags Duval), “Sailor Song” (Gigi Perez) and more. SMP’s honorees also include Ravyn Lenae, Sarah Aarons, Mike Dean, Sam de Jong, The Kid Laroi, Dylan Wiggins, Eddie Benjamin, Noah Ehler, Mike Hector, Brent Reynolds, John Ryan, Charlie Handsome, and Joe Reeves. For the full list of winners, visit BMI’s Pop Awards page here.
Upon receiving BMI’s Pop Publisher of the Year award, Katie Welle, Sony Music Publishing President, Head of A&R, said, “Being named Pop Publisher of the Year is a proud moment for our entire team, and one that belongs to the songwriters at the heart of this award – this honor is yours. Thank you to BMI, and to our amazing team for all that you do for SMP songwriters. Congratulations to all this year’s winners!”
(credit: Lester Cohen / Getty Images for BMI)
L-R: Georgia Wolf, Clark Adler, Nick Bral, Sara Chronert, Helen Lazenby, Camille Hudson, Lauren Munroe, Ari Gelaw, Michael Steinberg (BMI), Katie Welle, Jon Platt, Thomas Krottinger, Scout Easley, Adam Ikner, Barbara Cane (BMI), Will Skalmoski
