Graham Lyle Receives BMI Icon Award at 2024 BMI London Awards

BMI honored Graham Lyle with the BMI Icon Award at the 2024 BMI London Awards. The private event, held at The Savoy in London on Monday, Dec. 9, was hosted by BMI president and CEO Mike O’Neill.

As part of the tribute, Rich Soul Ensemble performed a medley of some of Lyle’s most popular songs including “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” both originally performed by Tina Turner, and “Just Good Friends,” originally performed by Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder.

Upon receiving the award, which was previously announced, Lyle thanked people who have supported him over the years, including his longtime co-writer Terry Britten; his former McGuinness Flint bandmates Hughie Flint and Tom McGuinness; and Paul McCartney.  He then played acoustic renditions of “Heart on My Sleeve,” originally performed by Ringo Starr, and “Something Beautiful Remains,” originally performed by Turner.

“Creepin,” written by Enya, Nick Ryan, Roma Ryan, Carlos “Lo” Jones and Mario Winans, was named London song of the year. This award is given to the most performed song of the previous year in the BMI repertoire by UK or European writers.

“Creepin,’” performed by Metro Boomin, The Weeknd and 21 Savage, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart in December 2022 and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2023. The song is a partial remake of Winans’ 2004 hit “I Don’t Want to Know,” featuring Enya.

During the ceremony, 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, or multiples thereof. Among the hit songs honored 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).

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 honored 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 composers honored, 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. 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.

A complete list of 2024 winners will soon be available on the BMI London Awards’ website.