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Johnny McDaid received the BMI President’s Award on Tuesday (Sept. 28) at the 2026 BMI London Awards. Throughout the ceremony, BMI paid tribute to the U.K. and European songwriters and publishers of the previous year’s most-performed songs on U.S. streaming, radio, film, television and visual media. The private event, held at The Dorchester in London, was hosted by Mike O’Neill, BMI CEO, and Mike Steinberg, executive vp, chief revenue & creative officer.
“We make a song, the song goes into the world,” McDaid said in accepting the award. “It finds someone out there, another childhood, another way of understanding love or loss. That person hears something in it that belongs to them, and in the songs we write, someone we have never met feels understood. We are songwriters, and what we do matters.”
Previous BMI President’s Award recipients include benny blanco, Luis Fonsi, Noel Gallagher, Ellie Goulding, Fraser T Smith, Imagine Dragons, Jay Kay of Jamiroquai, Ludacris, P!nk, Willie Nelson, Pitbull, T-Pain, Luny Tunes, Taylor Swift, Brian Wilson and Dwight Yoakam.
In addition, McDaid received Million-Air awards for 6 million U.S. performances of “Bad Habits” and 8 million for “Shape of You,” and a BMI award for co-writing “Azizam,” which was one of the previous year’s most-performed pop songs on terrestrial radio, satellite radio, and digital streaming services. This brings his total to 18 BMI Awards in addition to receiving BMI Pop and London Song of the Year in 2018 for “Shape of You” and BMI London Song of the Year in 2022 for “Bad Habits.”
BMI London Song of the Year went to “luther,” written and performed by Kendrick Lamar with co-writers Matthew “MTech” Bernard, Atia “INK” Boggs, Sam Dew, roselilah, Mark “Sounwave” Spears and SZA. The smash logged 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and set a new record for most weeks at No. 1 (23) on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Notably, “luther” became the first song to win song of the year at BMI’s Pop, R&B/Hip Hop and London Awards.
During the ceremony, several BMI Million-Air Awards were presented to the songwriters and publishers whose works have achieved the rare feat of surpassing 1 million broadcast performances in the U.S. Among the hit songs honored were “Take Me Home Tonight,” written by Mick Leeson and Peter Vale (12 million), “Take on Me,” by Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket and Pål Waaktaar of a-ha (11 million), “Another Brick in the Wall” by Roger Waters (10 million), “I Melt with You” by Richard Brown, Michael Conroy, Robbie Grey, Gary McDowell and Stephen Walker of Modern English (9 million), “Listen to Your Heart,” by Per Gessle of Roxette and Mats Persson (8 million), “Shape of You” (8 million) and “Bad Habits” (6 million) written by 2026 BMI President’s Award honoree Johnny McDaid and Ed Sheeran and “Message in a Bottle,” by Sting (5 million).
Alongside the BMI President’s Award, Million-Air Awards and London Song of the Year, awards were presented throughout the evening for the Most-Performed Pop Songs and for Film, TV & Visual Media featuring works from the past year’s top-grossing films, top-rated network television series, highest-ranking cable network and streamed media programs.
Some of the awards given in the Most-Performed Pop Songs category included “Man I Need” by Olivia Dean co-written by Zach Nahome and Tobias Jesso, Jr., “Push 2 Start” performed by Tyla and co-written Samuel “Sammy SoSo” Awuku, Ari PenSmith, Corey Marion Lindsay-Keay p/k/a Believve, “M a k e I t T o T h e M o r n i n g,” by PARTYNEXTDOOR and co-written by Nicola “niketaz” Kollar and Alex Lustig and “Which One” performed by Drake and Central Cee and written by O Lil Angel and Beam, among many others.
Among the award-winning composers, Atli Örvarsson won six awards for his work in network television and streaming for Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., FBI, FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted, bringing his total to 60 BMI awards. Tom Howe was recognized with two awards for his work in the animated superhero film Dog Man and Disney+’s Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires, Alexandre Desplat received an award for Jurassic World: Rebirth, Sheridan Tongue was honored for the documentary Amy Bradley is Missing and Alexis Smith and Joe Henson were saluted for their work on the video game Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In addition, BMI Streaming Series Awards went to Morgan Kibby and David Klotz for All’s Fair, Kevin Kiner and Clint Mansell for Peacemaker, Harry Gregson-Williams for HBO’s The Gilded Age and Ilan Eshkeri for Paramount+’s MobLand.
For a complete list of 2026 winners, go to the BMI site.
