May 15, 2001
Press Release
LOS ANGELES – MAY 15, 2001 – Performing rights organization BMI saluted the writers and publishers of the past year’s 50 most performed songs during the 49th BMI Pop Awards tonight, with top honors reserved for “Breathe,” songwriter Cory Rooney and EMI Music Publishing. Frances W. Preston, President & CEO, and Barbara Cane, Vice President & General Manager, Writer/Publisher Relations, Los Angeles, handed out the BMI Citations of Achievement during the black-tie gala, which culminated in the announcements of Song, Songwriter, Publisher and College Song of the Year. The event spotlighting writers, publishers, artists and music executives was staged at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“Breathe” earned the BMI Pop Song Of The Year Crystal for songwriter Stephanie Bentley and publishers Hopechest Music and Universal-Songs of PolyGram International, Inc; this distinction is given to the song tallying the most feature broadcast performances during the eligibility period. A #1 single from Faith Hill’s Warner Bros. album of the same name, “Breathe” received a 2000 BMI Country Award and has accrued more than two million performances. Bentley co-wrote the Grammy- and CMA-nominated song with Holly Lamar (share not licensed through BMI).
Leading all writers, Cory Rooney placed three songs on the Most Performed List to collect the BMI Pop Songwriter Of The Year reward: “Bring It All To Me” (recorded by Blaque with ‘N Sync), “I Need To Know” and “You Sang To Me” (both recorded by Marc Anthony). Rooney was honored with two BMI Latin Awards at the April 2001 ceremony, and previously won Pop Awards for “Real Love” (1993) and “If You Had My Love” (1999).
With 16 songs cited, EMI Music Publishing (through its companies EMI-Blackwood Music, Inc. and EMI-Virgin Songs, Inc.) heard BMI Pop Publisher Of The Year praises for the fourth consecutive year; Chairman & CEO Martin Bandier accepted the Crystal obelisk. The Publisher of the Year honor is given to the publishing concern with the highest percentage of copyright ownership in award songs. EMI has now claimed this honor seven times since 1989.
Of the 93 songwriters recognized, nine were double winners: Kevin “She’kspere” Briggs, Jerry “Wonder” Duplessis, Fred Jerkins, Rodney Jerkins, Robi “Draco” Rosa, Scott Stapp, Sting (PRS), Rob Thomas, and Mark Tremonti.
Publishers gathering three or more awards were Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp; Sony/ATV Songs LLC/Sony/ATV Tree; Universal Music Publishing (Universal-Songs of PolyGram International, Inc., Songs of Universal, Inc. and Irving Music); Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc.; Cori Tiffani Publishing; Ensign Music Corporation; and Zomba Songs Inc.
Songwriters Dave Grohl and Nate Mendel of the Foo Fighters saw the band’s “Learn To Fly” revealed as Most Performed Song On College Radio. The song, from the Foo Fighters’ RCA album There Is Nothing Left To Lose, is published by EMI-Virgin Songs, Inc., Flying Earform Music and MJ Twelve Music.
Among this year’s honorees 13 songs have earned the status of BMI Million-Air (accumulating at least one million broadcast performances) for a total of over 19 million performances. Based on an average length of three minutes, one million airplays is the equivalent of 50,000 hours or 5.7 years, continuously; Million-Airs on the 2000 list translate into over 950,000 hours or 108.3 years of airplay.
Three songs picked up their second Pop Awards: “Amazed” and “Smooth” for the second consecutive year, and “American Pie,” first honored in 1972 and now at the three-million-performance mark.
BMI’s Citation of Achievement is given annually in recognition of popularity in the field of popular music, as measured by feature broadcast performances on American radio and television; the 2000 Pop Awards eligibility period ran October 1, 1999 through September 30, 2000.
BMI, founded in 1940, is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music. Through its music performance and reciprocal agreements, it grants businesses and media access to its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million musical works from around the world.
High-resolution photos of this year’s BMI Pop Awards are available for downloading on the BMI Media Relations web site at press.bmi.com.
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Contacts:
Hanna Bolte Pat Baird
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