Chris Brown

Pop and r&b chanteuse Rihanna also scored big wins in the Pop-Rock and Soul-R&B fields, winning Favorite Female Artist in both contests. Urban visionary Kanye West also enjoyed strong recognition, as he took home trophies for Rap-Hip-Hop Favorite Male Artist and Album.

Rihanna

Kanye West

Wins under country genre's umbrella also belonged predominantly to BMI artists, as cross-genre darling Taylor Swift took home the Favorite Female Artist crown, hit-making powerhouse Rascal Flatts earned Favorite Band, Duo, or Group, and reigning CMA Female Vocalist of the Year Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride scored Favorite Album.

Daughtry walked away with the Favorite Band, Duo or Group win in the Pop-Rock category, while Three 6 Mafia snagged the same honor in the Rap-Hip-Hop field. Additional BMI winners included Jordin Sparks for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, and Linkin Park for Favorite Alternative Rock Band.

The Jonas Brothers received the T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist Award, reflecting the strength of their meteoric rise over the past several months. Legend Annie Lenox (PRS) took home the Award of Merit, while Mariah Carey garnered a special Honorary Award.

2008 BMI American Music Award Winners

Artist of the Year

Chris Brown

Pop-Rock

Male artist: Chris Brown

Female artist: Rihanna

Band, duo or group: Daughtry

Soul-R&B

Male artist: Chris Brown

Female artist: Rihanna

Rap-Hip-Hop

Male artist: Kanye West

Band, duo or group: Three 6 Mafia

Album: Graduation, Kanye West

Country

Female artist: Taylor Swift

Band, duo or group: Rascal Flatts

Album: Carnival Ride, Carrie Underwood

Adult Contemporary

Jordin Sparks

Alternative Rock

Linkin Park

T-Mobile Breakthrough Artist Award

Jonas Brothers

Honorary Award

Mariah Carey

Award of Merit

Annie Lennox (PRS)

For more information about the 2008 American Music Awards, click here.

So it’s no wonder that stars like Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, U2, Aretha Franklin, Tom Petty, Celine Dion and many others have worked with Stewart as a musical go-to-guy with seemingly limitless imagination and creativity. His legacy is now spotlighted on his latest musical venture: The Dave Stewart Songbook, Vol. 1. The package is a 20-song, two CD collection of some of his best-known collaboratively written and solo songs newly recorded by his touring band with full orchestra, and comes with an accompanying hardcover book that tells the stories behind the creations and includes photographs by Stewart.

It spotlights Stewart’s musical alchemy and his affection for creative interaction with the likes of Jon Bon Jovi, Gwen Stefani, Bryan Ferry, Bob Geldof and Sinead O’Connor in addition to some of the aforementioned. “Writing songs with other people is like falling in love over and over again,” says Stewart. ”It’s a fast track into someone’s soul — you can feel their heart beating against yours.”

Stewart became a hot musical talent on the rise in his teens when his band Longdancer signed to Elton John’s Rocket Records. He united with Lennox in the late 1970s as the band The Tourists, and, by the early ’80s, the two became Eurythmics, rising to international stardom thanks to such hits as “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), “Here Comes the Rain Again,” “Would I Lie to You?” and “Missionary Man.”

As an artist in his own right, Stewart has issued albums under his own name as well as with the band Spiritual Cowboys (with Pretenders drummer Martin Chambers) and as Platinum Weird with singer Kara DioGuardi, for which Stewart created a fictitious early 1970s history that was spotlighted in a VH1 “mockumentary” about the band. He has also taken his song revisions a la Songbook on tour as Dave Stewart and His 30-Piece Rock Fabulous Orchestra.

As no less of an icon as Bob Dylan notes, “Captain Dave is a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order.”

BMI's Charlie Feldman congratulates Abe Olman Scholarship winner Sylvia Tosun. Photo by Chuck Pulin

Named for one of the founding members of the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Abe Olman Scholarship awards $1,200 to each winner. The presentation was held June 7 in conjunction with the SHOF compilation CD release party at the Cutting Room in New York.

Tosun just returned from Beijing, China where she performed at the first ever concert at the Great Wall entitled "Wall of Hope" (scheduled to air this summer), sharing the stage with Alicia Keys and Cyndi Lauper. Her full-length album Jump In was released this May, and features producer Miklos Malek (Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Anastacia), mixer Tom Lord-Alge (Avril Lavigne, Peter Gabriel, Blink 182) and co-writers Julie Flanders and Emil Adler (founders of the cult band October Project). Sylvia's powerful voice combined with the album's rock rhythms, pop melodies, poetic metaphors and mystical undertones have been favorably compared to Annie Lennox, Sting and Peter Gabriel. A track from Jump In has just been featured on the WB11's DVD series, "Dawson's Creek."

I Can’t Stop reunites Green — or the Reverend Al Green, as he’s known by the congregation of the Full Gospel Tabernacle, the nondenominational Memphis church of which he is ordained pastor — with producer/arranger/songwriting collaborator Willie Mitchell, who first signed Green to the Memphis-based Hi label and oversaw the singer’s seminal string of ’70s smashes. Although Mitchell returned to produce Green’s 1985 gospel release He Is the Light, the new album marks the first time the two men have collaborated on an album of secular music in 27 years. The new album was recorded at Royal Recording Studios, the same Memphis facility where Green and Mitchell cut their enduring classics, using many of the same musicians and much of the same recording gear. I Can’t Stop’s homecoming vibe is reflected in the effortless exuberance of such upbeat numbers as the title song, “Million to One,” “I’ve Been Thinkin’ ’Bout You” and in the emotional commitment of the ballads “Not Tonight” and “My Problem Is You.”

The eight albums that Green made with Mitchell in the ’70s sold more than 20 million copies, yielding such durable (and largely self-written) hits as “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m Still in Love With You,” “Call Me,” “Love and Happiness” and “Tired of Being Alone.” Those tunes effortlessly merged the earthy grit of classic Southern soul with smooth grooves and lush orchestrations, with the singer manifesting a passionate, gospel-steeped immediacy that helped make him an international superstar and one of soul’s biggest sex symbols.

But Green had more on his mind than his career. In 1976, while still at the height of his commercial success, he purchased his Memphis church. Taking a 1979 onstage fall as a sign from God, Green decided to concentrate on his ministry, confining his recording efforts to gospel material (for which he won eight Grammy Awards). Although his church and religious music would remain his focus for much of the ’80s and ’90s, his occasional forays into secular performance — including a 1982 stint in the Broadway gospel musical “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God” and a 1988 duet with Annie Lennox on “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” — left Green fans dreaming of a full-scale return to soul singing.

In 1995, the same year he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Green released an album of new r&b material, Your Heart’s In Good Hands. But it took I Can’t Stop for Green to rediscover the sound and inspiration upon which his musical legend is built. He says that he got his congregation’s approval for the project before committing to it.

Meanwhile, Green’s Hi Records catalogue continues to get an overhaul from EMI-Capitol, which plans to release remastered editions of his classic albums Al Green is Love, Call Me, Al Green Explores Your Mind and Full Of Fire in June and a box set of vintage material in September.]]> 2004-08-24T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233536 Artists, Bowie, David, John, Elton, Lennox, Annie, Queen, Musical Styles, Pop, Rock, Musicworld, Feature Queen's recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (March 19, 2001) is more than a tad ironic.

When the British band was recording its best and most popular records during the 1970s and early 1980s, many critics delighted in heaping scorn on the quartet's extravagant music and stage shows.

But Queen's music has clearly gained critical stature with the passage of time. Its very early songs were a key bridge between glam rock and heavy metal. In the mid-to-late '70s, the group's work reached new levels of creativity and accessibility thanks to the development of its four members as songwriters. Guitarist-vocalist Brian May and drummer-vocalist Roger Taylor wrote catchy rockers (e.g., "Tie Your Mother Down" and "I'm In Love With My Car," respectively), bassist John Deacon proved to be an adept writer of pop songs ("You and I" and "You're My Best Friend") and flamboyant vocalist-pianist-frontman Freddie Mercury was particularly skilled at penning ornate, sometimes campy tunes. His semi-operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody" stands as Queen's signature song. The track also showcased the group's layered vocal harmonies, which was one of Queen's most distinctive trademarks.

The foursome may have had trouble wooing critics, but they didn't have any problems corralling fans. Queen scored over a dozen Top 40 hits in the U.S.

Queen's popularity diminished in the U.S. as the '80s progressed, but it remained a potent force in many other countries. During this period, the group basically eschewed the amphitheater circuit in America in favor of performing in much larger arenas and football stadiums in places like Europe and South America.

In 1991, Queen's Innuendo album entered the U.K. charts at number one. But by then, rumors were rampant that Mercury was ill with AIDS. Later that same year, he released a statement confirming these stories. Two days later, Mercury was dead.

On April 20, 1992, the surviving members of Queen and other artists like Elton John, Annie Lennox, David Bowie and Def Leppard performed a memorial concert at Wembley Stadium in England. The show was broadcast worldwide to an astonishing audience of more than one billion.

Taylor, May and Deacon spent parts of the next three years completing Queen's final studio album, Made In Heaven. Mercury's vocal tracks for the album were recorded prior to his death.

May and Taylor continue to release solo recordings. May's 1992 Back to the Light album even went gold in the U.K. But it is the music of Queen, and not the band's solo albums, which will endure. Various compilation and tribute albums, documentaries and a boxed set have helped keep the band's memory and work alive since Mercury's death.