It’s been a wild ride for Sam Bruno. While currently renowned for her sultry, hip-hop-inflected electronic dance pop, the Arizona native started off singing in church, honing her burgeoning musical skills on piano and ukulele. Taking her musical abilities and songwriting chops to the next stage, Bruno built herself a… Read more...
As an actor, Jharrel Jerome was already going places. A Bronx-born graduate of New York City’s revered Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, Jerome kickstarted his professional career in acting upon landing a crucial supporting role in director Barry Jenkins’ 2016 indie drama Moonlight, which went on to win the Oscar… Read more...
BMI is proud to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, recognizing the genre’s top songwriters, producers and publishers of the previous year. BMI’s Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Producer of the Year, Publisher of the Year and 2020’s Social Star were announced across BMI’s digital… Read more...
At my songwriting workshops I stress the importance of including lyric and melodic elements in our songs that will compel listeners and decision-makers to choose our material over the tough competition. Let’s look at some ways to write lyrics that command attention. 1. Find a Fresh Angle It’s unlikely that… Read more...
Tonight, BMI honored Noel Gallagher with the BMI President’s Award at the 2019 BMI London Awards. Guests included Raye, who also performed her brand new track, “Love Me Again,” and who was recognized with the BMI Impact Award (a brand new award for 2019). Anne-Marie and Niall Horan also attended… Read more...
BMI is exceptionally proud to congratulate its many affiliates nominated for awards by the Recording Academy at the 61st GRAMMY Awards, scheduled to be held on February 10, 2019 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Nominations for the music industry’s most prestigious accolades were announced on December 7. In… Read more...
“Show—Don’t Tell” is one of the basic tenets taught in almost every songwriting class. Writing cinematic lyrics—lyrics that incorporate visual imagery that listeners can envision like a movie in their minds—is often thought of as one of the most effective ways to connect with audiences. Cinematic lyrics do not spell… Read more...
Growing up, rapper and singer Daye Jack split his time between playing soccer, computer coding, singing in choir and listening to Eminem, OutKast and 50 Cent. Fast forward to one winter break at NYU when he uploaded his debut, Hello World, to the Internet. From there, he was scouted by… Read more...
BMI will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of “How I Wrote That Song,” Saturday, February 11 at 1 Oak Los Angeles. Moderated by BMI Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations Catherine Brewton, the highly anticipated annual pre-GRAMMY event will feature rap superstar Fat Joe, multi-hyphenate phenom DJ Khaled, GRAMMY Award-winning music producer Alex… Read more...
To grab our listeners’ attention we need to separate our songs from the competition, and one way to accomplish this is by including an unexpected twist—an element of surprise. This article examines various ways to incorporate twists into lyrics and melodies. Story Songs With Surprise Endings “Ol’ Red” (written by… Read more...
