Nashville
Taylor Swift Takes Home Five American Music Awards

Taylor Swift enjoyed yet another night of sweeping wins at the 2009 American Music Awards, held Sunday, November 22. As a bold testament to the young singer/songwriter’s broad appeal, Swift went home with Pop-Rock Female Artist, Country Female Artist, Country Album, and Adult Contemporary Artist trophies, a build-up which fittingly culminated with the all-genre Artist of the Year title. Late BMI Icon Michael Jackson…
GreatWorshipSongs.com Contest Call for Entries

Great Worship Songs and the Gospel Music Association (GMA) are searching for the best original and relatively unknown worship songs in the country. The GreatWorshipSongs.com Contest is open to unpublished songwriters, who may submit up to two songs each for review. The competition calls for praise and worship songs in the same anthemic vein as "My Savior, My God” and “God of Wonders,” created for use in church services. The…
Taylor Swift Wins Entertainer of the Year and More at 2009 CMA Awards

The night after she took home her second consecutive BMI Song of the Year crystal, Taylor Swift swept the 43rd Annual CMA Awards, winning Entertainer, Female Vocalist, Album and Video of the Year honors. The youngest performer to ever earn the Entertainer of the Year crown, Swift is also the first female to capture the coveted prize since Shania Twain in 1999. The Album…
Kris Kristofferson, Taylor Swift, Bobby Pinson, and More Honored at 2009 BMI Country Awards

The 57th Annual BMI Country Awards celebrated the genre’s top hit-makers tonight in Nashville. In addition to toasting the writers and publishers of the past year’s 50 most-performed country songs from the BMI repertoire, the ceremony honored Kris Kristofferson as a BMI Icon; named Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” Song of the Year, Bobby Pinson Songwriter of the Year, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Publisher of…
‘We Will Rock You’ Is Most-Played Song at Pro Sports Games for ’08/’09 Season

BMI has determined that “We Will Rock You,” a favorite of sports fans and teams for three decades, ranks as the most-played song at games of the National Football League, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball last season. “We Will Rock You” was written by Brian May and included in a 1977 album titled News of the World by the British rock group Queen. While the song has been…
Holly Williams, Upholding and Enhancing a Family Tradition

Singer-songwriter Holly Williams, grandchild of legendary honky-tonk provocateur Hank Williams Sr. and daughter of hard-charging country star Hank Jr, is a long, tall siren with an intense, smoldering style and a fabled bloodline that affords her both a tremendous advantage and some built-in, inescapable challenges. On her current Here with Me album (Mercury Nashville), she excels at gracefully navigating between the extremes such a…
Indie Sounds Ignite BMI-CMJ Showcase

The 2009 BMI-sponsored CMJ Music Marathon Festival showcase, held October 21 at Crash Mansion, showcased seven-deep lineup featuring an explosive variety of sounds from pop/rap amalgamators Crush Club; valiant imports Die Die Die; southern wordsmith Rob Roy; jazz-funk scholars Space Capone; rock hounds Modern Skirts; musical brethren The Enemy…
NSAI Honors Swift, Keith, Fleming, Varble and More at Annual Awards

BMI country chart-toppers received accolade after accolade during the 2009 NSAI Awards dinner, held Sunday, October 18 in Nashville. Record-breaker Taylor Swift was named Artist/Songwriter of the Year; beloved Music Row songwriter Wynn Varble earned the Songwriter of the Year crown, while “Waitin’ on a Woman,” which Varble co-wrote, was voted Song of the Year; and genre giant Toby Keith was…
BMI Annual Review 2009

BMI realized revenues of more than $905 million and royalty distributions totaling more than $788 million in fiscal year 2009, both higher than the company’s historic results of the previous year. That success was made possible by the power, scope and appeal of the repertoire created by BMI’s affiliates, combined with BMI’s long-term efforts to capture new sources of revenue. Details of these results, along with an analysis of the…
BMI Sounds Off at Next Big Nashville 2009

BMI presented their Next Big Nashville showcase at Mercy Lounge on October 10, boasting a stacked lineup that included Southern rockers Ponderosa, the dizzyingly energetic Mike’s Pawn Shop, Ten Out of Tenn journeyman Kyle Andrews, videogame-infused rock warriors The Protomen, and quirky popsters Heypenny. On Saturday before the show, BMI also hosted…
