October 24, 2002
STING, MICHAEL KAMEN, PAUL HERMAN, PAMELA SHEYNE
AMONG THOSE HONORED AT GALA BMI LONDON AWARDS
Press Release
‘Thank You’ Named Song of the Year;
Gorillaz’ ‘Clint Eastwood’ College Song of the Year
LONDON, October 24, 2002 - “Thank You” written by Paul Herman, published by Cheeky Music Ltd. and recorded by Dido, was honored tonight by BMI with the organization’s highest accolade, The Robert S. Musel Award. The Award, named for the US performing rights organization’s long-time UK consultant, annually honors the most performed song of the year written by a member or members of BMI’s European sister organizations.
The gala dinner and awards ceremony, held at the Ballroom of London’s Dorchester Hotel and hosted by BMI President & CEO Frances W. Preston with BMI Vice President of European Writer/Publisher Relations Phillip Graham, included the presentation of awards from 2001. Last year’s dinner, scheduled for September 12, was cancelled due to the tragic events in the United States the previous day. Sting’s “Desert Rose,” published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd./Magnetic Music, was recognized as the Robert S. Musel Award 2001 Song of the Year.
“Clint Eastwood,” written by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd., and recorded by Gorillaz, was named the 2002 College Song of the Year for the most performances on US college radio. Oasis’s “Go Let It Out,” written by Noel Gallagher and published by Oasis Music/Creation Songs Ltd./Sony/ATV Music Publishing Ltd., was recognized as College Song for the previous year.
UK resident and BMI affiliated composer Michael Kamen was presented with four awards this evening: the special Olympic Flame Award for his theme to the 2002 Winter Olympics, a Cable Award for his score to HBO’s “Band of Brothers,” a four million performance award for “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” and a 2001 Film Music Award for his score to “X-Men.” Receiving three awards were Chris Eaton for his Contemporary Christian songs “Adore,” “Lift Me Up,” and “Live For You” (2001), all published by SGO Music Publishing Ltd.; Pamela Sheyne, with 2001 Pop Awards for “He Loves You Not” and “This Is Me” published by AppleTreeSongs Ltd. and Warner/Chappell Music Ltd., as well as (2002) “Irresistible” (co-written by Anders Bagge of STIM and co-published by EMI Songs Scandinavia AB, STIM); and Mirwais Ahmadzai
(PRS/SACEM), with a 2002 Dance Award and Pop Award for “Don’t Tell Me” and a 2001 Pop Award for “Music,” both published by 1000 Lights Music, Ltd. (SACEM) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (PRS).
Additional featured awards for 2002 included a TV Music Award to Pete Townshend’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and to John Lennon for “Providence”; an Urban Award to Dominic Miller and Sting for “Emotional”; a Country Award to Billy Livsey for “If You Can Do Anything Else”; and Film Music Awards to Rolfe Kent for “Legally Blonde,” David Holmes for “Ocean’s Eleven,” Harry Gregson-Williams for “Shrek” and Paul Oakenfold for “Swordfish.” Featured awards for 2001 included a Dance Award to SIAE’s Massimo Gabutti, Maurizio Lobina, Gianfranco Randone and publisher GZ 2538 for “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” a Film Music Award to Gregson-Williams for “Chicken Run,” and a TV Music Award to Townshend for the “CSI” theme.
Three songs were honored for reaching the five million performance plateau. They were “Daniel” by Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and “Layla” by Eric Clapton. Sir Elton received three additional multi-million performance certificates (as well as Pop Awards for “I Want Love” and “Someday Out of the Blue”), and John Lennon was honored with seven “Million-Air” awards, noting a total of more than 21 million performances of those songs. Rod Argent picked up a four million performance award for his “Time of the Season,” and songwriters Ray Davies and Gary Kemp were honored for three million performances of their “You Really Got Me” and “True,” respectively.
High-resolution photos from the event will be available Friday, October 25. No password is required. A complete list of the 2001 and 2002 BMI London Awards winners is available on the main bmi.com site. APTV will make videos available via their satellite Friday, October 25 at 1am, 7am and 10am.
BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 300,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers from around the world and in all genres of music. With a catalog of approximately 4.5 musical works, it collects license fees from the commercial outlets that play music and distributes those fees as royalties to its creators and copyright holders.
# # #
Contacts:
UK US
Chris Poole Pat Baird
020 7267 47677/ Mobile: 077-20446083 212 830 2528
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Download this document in Word format.