Stargate’s Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Hermansen were named the songwriter of the year at the 26th Annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards, held tonight (April 22) at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood. “Bleeding Love,” written by Jesse McCartney and Ryan Tedder, was named song of the year. The song is a hit for Leona Lewis.
The publisher of the year award was presented to both EMI Music Publishing and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, as both companies tied with 20 award-winning songs each.
Stargate, which also won the ASCAP songwriter of the year award in 2007, is responsible for penning six of the most performed songs of the past year: Chris Brown’s “With You,” Ne-Yo’s “Closer” and “Miss Independent,” Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop the Music” and “Take a Bow,” and Jordin Sparks’ “Tattoo.”
The top five most performed songs of 2008 were “Apologize,” written by Tedder; “Bleeding Love,” written by McCartney and Tedder; “Love Song,” written by Sara Bareilles; “Low,” written by Flo-Rida; and “No One,” written by Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, DJ Dirty Harry and Alicia Keys.
Many of the last night’s winning songwriters were on hand to collect their awards, according to a press release, including multiple winners Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, who received four awards; Terius “The Dream” Nash, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart and Tedder, who collected three awards each; Brothers, Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, Andre Merritt, Jason Reeves, and Brian Kennedy Seals, who won two awards each; and Jimmy Jam, who won for “Bust It Baby (Part 2);” Quincy Jones for “Good Life;” Kardinal Offishall for “Dangerous;” Johntá Austin for “With You;” and Webbie for “Independent.”
Downtown Music Publishing artist Santi White (aka Santigold) was honored with ASCAP’s vanguard award, which recognizes the impact of musical genres that help shape the future of American music.
Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart were presented with ASCAP’s Founders Award, which is given to songwriters who have made pioneering contribution to music and are considered influential.
Wyclef Jean was presented with ASCAP’s creative voice award, which is a way to honor an ASCAP member or group whose significant career achievements are equally informed by their creative spirit and by their contributions to the role that a creator can play in their community. Wyclef founded Yéle Haiti in 2005 to provide aid and assistance to his native country of Haiti.
The complete list of winners is available at ascap.com.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news