Taylor Swift Accepts First Taylor Swift Award and Top Songwriter Prize at BMI Pop Awards 

Taylor Swift Accepts First Taylor Swift Award and Top Songwriter Prize at BMI Pop Awards

Taylor Swift arrives at the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 28, 2016 in Beverly Hills, Calif

‘Uptown Funk’ is named song of the year, Sony/ATV reigns as publisher of the year as songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil receive the BMI Icon Award.

Taylor Swift added two more honors — the first-ever Taylor Swift Award and Pop Songwriter of the Year — to her crowded shelf of industry accolades at the 64

annual BMI Pop Awards last evening (May 10). Held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., the ceremony honored the writers and publishers of the most-performed pop songs during the past year.

Swift’s eponymous award, in recognition of her creative and artistic talent and influence, marked only the second time in BMI’s 76-year history that the organization has presented an award in an artist’s name.

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Michael Jackson was the first to achieve that honor in 1990. Swift also claimed four of the year’s most-performed songs to earn pop songwriter of the year kudos. “Bad Blood,” “Blank Space,” “Style” and “Wildest Dreams” are all featured on the artist’s Billboard 200 No. 1 album

Tonight we honor superstar songwriter Taylor Swift with the Taylor Swift Award at the #BMIPopAwards! pic.twitter.com/HQIfR2PXaT

— Broadcast Music Inc. (@bmi) May 11, 2016

The BMI Pop Awards also honored “Uptown Funk” as its Pop Song of the Year. Awarded the Grammy for Record of the Year in February, the song was co-written by Jeff Bhasker, Devon Gallaspy, Trinidad James, Mark Ronson, Lonnie Simmons, Rudy Taylor, Charlie Wilson, Robert Wilson and Ronnie Wilson. Sony/ATV was named BMI’s Pop Publisher of the Year, logging 23 of the year’s most-performed songs.

Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, the songwriting team behind such enduring hits as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway” and “Just Once,” was presented with the BMI Icon Award. The SoCal VoCals, the University of Southern California's preeminent a cappella group, performed a medley of the legendary duo’s most memorable songs.

BMI president/CEO Mike O’Neill and BMI VP of writer/publisher relations Barbara Cane hosted the 64th annual ceremony. A complete list of the 2016 BMI Pop Awards honorees is available at bmi.com.

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