“Stay” Received BMI Pop Song of the Year; Doja Cat Named Songwriter of the Year;
Sony Music Publishing Honored as Publisher of the Year – Evening Also Celebrated the 50 Most-Performed Pop Songs
of Previous Year
BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) paid tribute to the best in songwriting at the 2023 BMI Pop Awards held tonight at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The multiple platinum-selling recording artist and songwriter Khalid was honored with the BMI Champion Award, celebrating his musical contributions and philanthropic efforts that support today’s youth and the next generation of songwriters.
In addition, BMI’s Pop Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Publisher of the Year and BMI’s top 50 most-performed pop songs in the U.S. of the previous year were also announced. The private event was hosted by BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill and Vice President Worldwide Creative Barbara Cane.
As the night’s top honoree, Khalid was presented with the BMI Champion Award by O’Neill, who praised his groundbreaking musical contributions and work to benefit the lives of young people. After receiving the award, Khalid treated the audience with an acoustic performance of some of his biggest hits including, “Location,” “Better,” and “Talk.”
Khalid exploded onto the charts in 2017 with his first single, “Location,” which went on to be certified diamond by the RIAA. He was named one of Time’s Most Influential People of 2019, and his music has been streamed worldwide more than 30 billion times across all digital platforms. Included in his long list of industry accolades, Khalid has amassed 18 BMI awards, and in 2020, was honored as BMI’s Pop Songwriter of the Year and his hit track “Talk” was named BMI’s R&B/Hip-Hop Song of the Year. In addition to his career in music, Khalid is a true humanitarian dedicated to making a difference in the lives of many. Alongside his mother, Linda Wolfe, he created The Great Khalid Foundation in 2020, offering music education programs, scholarship awards and community partnerships to support and nurture children to dream big.
In receiving this honor, Khalid joins previous BMI Champion Award recipients who were honored for their commitment and efforts supporting future songwriters and music makers, including Mark Ronson, Residente, Sebastian Krys, Keith Urban and Lee Thomas Miller.
Throughout the ceremony, the 50 most-performed pop songs of the previous year in the U.S. were also revealed, leading up to BMI’s Pop Song of the Year, which went to “Stay” written by Cashmere Cat, Isaac “Zac” De Boni, Omer Fedi, Haan, The Kid LAROI (APRA), Michael “Finatik” Mulé, Charlie Puth and Blake Slatkin. The mega hit performed by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber became the first song in history to spend its first 40 weeks consecutively in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and was the most-streamed song globally on Apple Music in 2022.
BMI’s Pop Songwriter of the Year went to Doja Cat with six of the previous year’s most-performed songs, including “Get Into It (Yuh)” (co-written with SULLY and Y2K), “I Like You (A Happier Song)” (co-written with Jasper Harris), “Need to Know,” “Vegas” (co-written with Rogét Chahayed and Yeti Beats), “Woman” (co-written with Aaron Horn (PRS), Linden Jay (PRS), Jidenna and Yeti Beats) and “You Right.” The celebrated rapper/singer/songwriter/producer has received seven BMI Awards over her career, including BMI’s R&B/Hip-Hop Song of the Year for co-writing “Say So” in 2021.
Sony Music Publishing received Publisher of the Year for representing 24 of the previous year’s most performed songs, including “Bad Habit,” “Numb,” “Running Up That Hill” and “Shivers” to name a few.
BMI also welcomed 53 first time Pop Award winners including GAYLE and Sara Davis (“abcdefu”), Steve Lacy, Diana Gordon, and Matthew Castellanos (“Bad Habit”), Tyler Cole (“Meet Me at Our Spot”) and dazy and Nicky Youre (“Sunroof”).
For a full list of the 2023 honorees, please visit https://www.bmi.com/pop2023, and to join the conversation on social media, follow us @BMI and use #BMIPopAwards.
