BMI Congratulates its 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees & Award-Winners
BMI is again very proud of its songwriters who were singled out for induction by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in an announcement Sunday night during an airing of ABC’s American Idol. In the performer category, Cyndi Lauper and Big Boi of OutKast were announced as members of the 2025 class of inductees. The Hall is also posthumously bestowing awards to two BMI songwriters, specifically the Musical Excellence Awards to the late Thom Bell and the Musical Influence Awards to the late Warren Zevon.
A longtime BMI affiliate, Cyndi Lauper is a Tony and GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter with a versatile four-octave vocal range who has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Since her landmark 1983 solo debut album, She’s So Unusual, featuring classics like “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” “All Through the Night” and the era-defining “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” the New York City native has established herself as a timeless performer and songwriter.
As one half of Atlanta’s groundbreaking hip-hop duo, OutKast, rapper/songwriter Big Boi emerged in 1992 with an unconventional sound, vision and delivery that immediately distinguished the duo as a formidable new force in the genre. Releasing six studio albums with hits like “Elevators (Me & You),” “Rosa Parks,” “B.O.B.,” “Ms. Jackson,” “So Fresh, So Clean,” “Hey Ya!,” “The Way You Move,” OutKast enjoyed both massive critical acclaim and commercial success before disbanding in 2007. Big Boi, however, cemented his status as a hugely influential figure in hip-hop.
A principal architect of the Philadelphia Soul sound, Thom Bell was a musician, producer, arranger, and songwriter of some of the most beloved records in R&B history. His signature touch on singles by The Delfonics, The Stylistics, The O’Jays, Dusty Springfield, The Spinners, Dionne Warwick and countless others earned him renown as a master of his craft and a consummate songwriter.
Singer/songwriter Warren Zevon cut his teeth as a jingle composer and session musician in the late `60s and early `70s but shortly built a reputation for his strikingly original songwriting. Pairing colorfully gritty narratives with his gift for infectious melody, Zevon crafted a string of memorable songs like “Lawyers, Guns & Money,” “Excitable Boy,” “Carmelita,” “The Envoy,” “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” and “Werewolves of London.” Zevon’s signature blend of wit, edge and talent earned the songwriter a profoundly influential legacy that can still be heard today.
This year’s Rock & Holl Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place Saturday, November 8 in Los Angeles. Congratulations to the entire class of 2025!
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