As one of the most successful British songwriters of his generation, Lyle has written countless hit songs including Tina Turner’s classic, “What’s Love Got to Do With It” with Terry Britten, which won Song of the Year at the 1985 GRAMMY Awards and eventually became Turner’s best-selling single. It also earned Lyle multiple BMI Million-Air Awards, ultimately reaching eight million broadcast performances on U.S. radio. Lyle also wrote “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome),” for Turner during their longstanding partnership. In addition, Lyle has written for several other high-profile artists across all genres including, “Just Good Friends” by Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, “Hold Me (Just a Little Longer Tonight)” by Etta James, “You’re the Star” by Rod Stewart and “When You Love Somebody (I’m Saving My Love for You)” by Patti LaBelle, to name a few.
Paying tribute to Lyle, Rich Soul Ensemble performed a rousing medley of some of his most popular songs including “Just Good Friends,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” and “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Upon receiving the BMI Icon Award, Lyle thanked many of the people in the industry who have supported him over the years, including his longtime cowriter Terry Britten, his former McGuinness Flint bandmates Hughie Flint and Tom McGuinness and Paul McCartney, among others. He then surprised the audience with heartfelt acoustic renditions of “Heart on My Sleeve,” performed by Ringo Starr and “Something Beautiful Remains,” performed by Tina Turner, which he noted as one of her favourite songs.
As a BMI Icon, Lyle joins an elite group of previous recipients including Sting, Gary Kemp, Graham Gouldman, Sir Tim Rice, The Bee Gees, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Ray Davies, John Fogerty, David Foster, Peter Gabriel, The Jacksons, Carole King, Kris Kristofferson, Barry Manilow, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Queen, Nile Rodgers, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Van Morrison and Brian Wilson, among others.
London Song of the Year went to “Creepin,” written by Enya, Nick Ryan, Roma Ryan, Carlos “Lo” Jones and Mario Winans, which is a partial remake of Winans’ 2004 hit “I Don’t Want to Know,” featuring Enya. The RIAA 2x Platinum certified single, performed by Metro Boomin, The Weeknd and 21 Savage, hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart and peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100. This award is given to the most performed song of the previous year by UK or European writers in the BMI repertoire.
During the ceremony, several BMI Million-Air Awards were presented to the songwriters and publishers whose works have achieved the rare feat of surpassing one million broadcast performances on U.S. radio. Among the hit songs honoured were “Every Breath You Take” written by Sting with 19 million performances, “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen (10 million), “Here I Go Again,” by Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake (9 million), “I Melt With You” by Modern English (8 million), “Listen to Your Heart,” by Roxette (7 million), “Islands in the Stream” written by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb (6 million) and “Someone You Loved,” written by Tom Barnes and Sam Roman (5 million).
Alongside the BMI Icon Award, Million-Air Awards and London Song of the Year, awards for the Most-Performed Pop, Film, Television, Cable and Streaming songs were also presented throughout the ceremony. For Pop, LiTek and whYJay accepted an award for “Doja” performed by Central Cee; Blush Davis and Chris James were honoured for “Like Crazy” by Jimin of BTS, and Ari PenSmith, Believve, Jack LoMastro, Olmo, rayo and Sammy SoSo were presented an award for “Water” by Tyla. Among the award-winning composers honoured, Atli Örvarsson won six BMI Network Television Awards for his work on Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., FBI, FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted and Tom Howe received three awards for his work in streaming in both film and TV series categories for The People We Hate at the Wedding and Apple’s Shrinking and Ted Lasso, respectively.
