Johnny McDaid has received the BMI President’s Award at the 2026 BMI London Awards.
The songwriter, producer, and Snow Patrol member was honored at a private ceremony at The Dorchester in London on Monday (September 28).
The event was hosted by BMI CEO Mike O’Neill and EVP, Chief Revenue & Creative Officer Mike Steinberg.
Honorees on the night were the UK and European writers, composers, and publishers whose works were most performed in the US in the previous year, across streaming, radio, film, television, and visual media.
McDaid said in his speech: “We make a song, the song goes into the world. It finds someone out there, another childhood, another way of understanding love or loss.
“We make a song, the song goes into the world. It finds someone out there, another childhood, another way of understanding love or loss.”
Johnny McDaid
“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.”
On the night, McDaid also collected BMI Million-Air Awards for 8 million US performances of Shape of You and 6 million for Bad Habits, both co-written with Ed Sheeran.
He also received a BMI award for co-writing Azizam, which the PRO counted among the previous year’s most-performed pop songs across terrestrial radio, satellite radio, and digital streaming.
According to BMI, that takes his tally to 18 BMI Awards.
McDaid previously won 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.
“From his early days honing his craft on the streets of London to becoming one of the most sought-after collaborators in music, Johnny has built an extraordinary career defined by creativity, authenticity and a deep respect for the craft of songwriting,” said Steinberg when BMI announced the honor in August.
“His remarkable gift for melody and storytelling, and his ability to capture human emotion, have helped shape some of the most memorable and enduring songs of the past two decades. We’re thrilled to honour his outstanding contributions to music with the BMI President’s Award.”
Previous President’s Award recipients include Taylor Swift, Noel Gallagher, Ellie Goulding, benny blanco, Willie Nelson, and Brian Wilson.
Producer Fraser T. Smith received the award at last year’s ceremony, also held at The Dorchester.
In January 2025, Concord acquired a portion of McDaid’s publishing catalog and became the administration partner for his future works.
MBW understood at the time that the Concord deal included both the writer’s share and publisher’s share of songs including Shivers and Bad Habits.
In 2019, Hipgnosis Songs Fund struck a deal with McDaid for a catalog of 91 compositions.
BMI London Song of the Year went to luther, written and performed by Kendrick Lamar and SZA.
BMI’s other credited co-writers on the track are Matthew “MTech” Bernard, Atia “INK” Boggs, Sam Dew, Roselilah, and Mark “Sounwave” Spears.
According to BMI, it is the first time in its history that one song has won Song of the Year at its Pop, R&B/Hip-Hop, and London Awards in the same year.
luther won Song of the Year at the BMI Pop Awards in Los Angeles on May 12.
It then took R&B/Hip-Hop Song of the Year at a ceremony on August 26, where Lamar was also named Songwriter of the Year.
BMI said the track placed at No. 2 on Billboard‘s 2025 Year-End Hot 100 Songs chart.
The PRO added that luther spent 23 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, passing the previous record of 22 weeks set by Lamar‘s own Not Like Us.
Elsewhere, BMI presented Million-Air Awards to songs that have passed one million broadcast performances in the US.
Among the songs honored were Take Me Home Tonight, written by Mick Leeson and Peter Vale (12 million), and Take On Me, by Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, and Pål Waaktaar of a-ha (11 million).
Roger Waters‘ Another Brick in the Wall was recognized for 10 million performances.
Modern English‘s I Melt with You, written by Richard Brown, Michael Conroy, Robbie Grey, Gary McDowell, and Stephen Walker, reached 9 million.
Listen to Your Heart, by Roxette‘s Per Gessle with Mats Persson, reached 8 million, while The Police‘s Message in a Bottle, written by Sting, reached 5 million.
Most-Performed Pop Songs winners included Man I Need by Olivia Dean, co-written by Zach Nahome and Tobias Jesso Jr.
Other winners in the category included Push 2 Start, performed by Tyla and co-written by Samuel “Sammy SoSo” Awuku, Ari PenSmith, and Corey “Believve” Lindsay-Keay.
M a k e I t T o T h e M o r n i n g by PARTYNEXTDOOR, 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, were also recognized.
Composer Atli Örvarsson won six awards for Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., FBI, FBI: International, and FBI: Most Wanted, taking his BMI career total to 60 awards.
Tom Howe won two awards, for Dog Man and Disney+’s Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires, while Alexandre Desplat was recognized for Jurassic World: Rebirth.
BMI Streaming Series Awards went to Harry Gregson-Williams for HBO’s The Gilded Age and Ilan Eshkeri for Paramount+’s MobLand, among others.
BMI says it represents the public performance rights in more than 25 million works by over 1.5 million songwriters, composers, and music publishers.
The PRO was acquired by a New Mountain Capital-led shareholder group in 2024.
BMI has published a full list of 2026 London Awards winners on its website.Music Business Worldwide
