ED SHEERAN WINS 'SONG OF THE YEAR' FOR THE SECOND YEAR WITH 'LOVE YOURSELF'

Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®), the global leader in music rights management, tonight honoured internationally-celebrated musician and songwriter Jay Kay (of Jamiroquai) with the BMI President's Award at the 2017 BMI London Awards. Music industry guests including Naughty Boy, Foals and Bipolar Sunshine filled London's Dorchester hotel to celebrate UK and European songwriters, producers and publishers of the most-performed songs of 2016.

Jay Kay received the BMI President's Award because of his "originality, which has inspired generations of musicians and fans alike"and joins a list of past honourees including Kenny Chesney, P!nk, Willie Nelson, Adam Levine, Gloria & Emilio Estefan, and Toni Braxton. He was presented with the prestigious award by BMI President & CEO Mike O'Neill before taking to the Ballroom stage for an acoustic rendition of 'Love Foolosophy' and 'Space Cowboy'. He thanked his fans, family and all those of who supported him over the years including Jamiroquai founding member and co-writer Toby Smith.

Upon accepting the award Jay Kay said:

"I'm very happy to receive this award tonight, it's been 30 years since I began a career in music, and I'm lucky to still be able to do my thing and express it through songs. There's still no better buzz really, than starting off with that 'thing' in your head and letting it get to the stage where you hear it on the radio, in front of loads of people, all over the world, it's a real privilege."

This year BMI expanded its criteria to determine the most performed songs of the year. In addition to terrestrial radio performances and television, for the first time the data also included performances from digital streaming services and satellite radio.

BMI also honoured Ed Sheeran with the Song of the Year award (The Robert S. Musel Award) for 'Love Yourself'', as performed by Justin Bieber. The prize is given to the most-performed song of 2016 by UK or European writers in the BMI catalogue. Sheeran also received the Song of the Year award in 2016 for 'Thinking Out Loud'. 

The 'Dance Song Of The Year' was awarded to Jamie Scott, MØ and Ed Sheeran for 'Cold Water', as performed by Major Lazer, Justin Bieber and MØ. Jamie Scott collected the award on the night.

Foals received their first ever BMI London Award for 'Mountain At My Gates', and Kyla, Corey Johnson, DJ Paleface were honoured for their contribution to Drake's 'One Dance', with the song sampling their funky house track 'Do You Mind'. Also in attendance was Adio Marchant, more familiarly known as Bipolar Sunshine, who was honoured with a Pop Award for his track 'Middle' with DJ Snake. Naughty Boy's publishing company Naughty Words were honoured with an award for 'Stay With Me' by Sam Smith. 

Norwegian songwriting duo Espionage, formed of Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund, received a BMI Million-Air award for 'Irreplaceable' performed by Beyoncé . Fraser T Smith, also received a BMI Million-Air award for 'Set Fire To The Rain' from Adele's record breaking, GRAMMY award winning second album '21'. Other artists to be awarded with Million-Air awards include David Bowie for 'Changes', and Modern English, who collected their award for 'I Melt With You', Queen for 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Eric Clapton for'Wonderful Tonight' and The Police for their hits'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic'and 'Don't Stand So Close To Me',among others.

For a complete list of 2017 BMI London Award winners, visit here