Graham Lyle was honoured with the BMI Icon Award at the 2024 BMI London Awards.
Throughout the ceremony, BMI paid tribute to UK and European songwriters, producers, composers and publishers of the most-performed songs of the previous year.
The event, held at The Savoy in London, was hosted by BMI President & CEO Mike O’Neill (pictured with Lyle).
Lyle has written many hit songs, including Tina Turner’s classic What’s Love Got to Do With It with Terry Britten. He 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.
Paying tribute to Lyle, Rich Soul Ensemble performed a medley of some of his most popular songs.
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 co-writer Terry Britten, his former McGuinness Flint bandmates Hughie Flint and Tom McGuinness, and Paul McCartney, among others.
He performed acoustic renditions of Heart On My Sleeve (recorded by Ringo Starr) and Something Beautiful Remains (recorded by Tina Turner).
As a BMI Icon, Lyle joins a 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.3 on the US 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 US 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 (nine million), I Melt With You by Modern English (eight million), Listen to Your Heart by Roxette (seven million), Islands in the Stream written by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb (six million) and Someone You Loved written by Tom Barnes and Sam Roman (five 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.
A complete list of 2024 winners is available at the BMI official site.
PHOTO: John Phillips/Getty Images for BMI
