BMI hosted the 2024 BMI Christian Awards this evening, celebrating its top Christian songwriters and music publishers with BMI’s Christian Song, Songwriter, and Publisher of the Year revealed. In addition, the ceremony named 21 first-time winners for their hand in writing the top 25 most-performed Christian songs of the previous year. BMI’s AVP of Creative, Nashville, Leslie Roberts hosted the invitation-only ceremony at BMI’s Music Row office.
Throughout the ceremony, BMI named the top 25 most-performed Christian songs such as "Fear Is Not My Future,” “God Is in The Story,” “Heart of God,” “Hymn of Heaven,” “Love Me Like I Am,” “Rest On Us,” “Who I Am” and more. First-time winners included Bryan Fowler, Enrique Holmes, Jesse Cline, Nicole Hannel, Jonathan Jay, Jacob Mills, Levi Mills, Hannah Shackelford, Anthony Skinner and P!nk.
"Gratitude" was named the 2024 Song of the Year. Written by BMI songwriters Dante Bowe and Ben Hastings (APRA), the No. One hit is featured on Brandon Lake's album, House of Miracles. The track received critical praise for its raw honesty and received nominations from the 2023 GMA Dove Awards for Song of the Year and Worship Recorded Song of the Year.
The coveted Songwriter of the Year award was presented to Phil Wickham, who had a hand in writing four of this year’s award-winning songs including “Holy Forever,” “Hymn of Heaven,” “Then Christ Came,” and “This Is Our God.” The multi-GRAMMY nominated worship artist has garnered billions of streams and his latest album, I Believe, has earned two No. One singles at Christian radio.
Essential Music Publishing took home the accolade for Publisher of the Year, as they are responsible for 12 of the 25 most-performed songs of the year including "Cornerstone,” “God Is in This Story,” “Heart of God,” “Holy Forever,” “I Thank God,” “I’m So Blessed,” “Perfectly Loved,” “Same God,” “Thank God I Do,” “Then Christ Came,” “This Is Our God” and “Who I Am.”
The 2024 BMI Christian Awards featured special moments throughout the night as Anne Wilson offered a stripped-down version of her hit, “Strong,” accompanied by BMI’s 2023 Songwriter of the Year, Jeff Pardo. Prolific newcomer Charly Beathard made her BMI performance debut with “Hallelujah Anyway,” while multi-Grammy nominated artist Phil Wickham performed an acoustic rendition of his song “Hymn of Heaven.”
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