Sam Smith wins BMI Song of the Year

Sam Smith won the Song of the Year award at the 2015 BMI London Awards on Monday (19.10.15). The 23-year-old singer picked up the prestigious Robert S.Musel award for 'Stay With Me', beating off stiff competition from Ed Sheeran and Hozier. The gong is given to the most-performed song of the previous year by UK or European writers in the BMI catalogue on US radio and television. He also received four Pop Awards for 'Stay With Me', 'I'm Not The Only One', 'Latch' and his contribution to 'La La La'. John Newman was presented with Pop Awards for BRIT Award nominated 'Love Me Again' and 'Blame' and revealed he is currently working on some exciting new collaborations. Speaking at the ceremony at London's Dorchester Hotel, he told BANG Showbiz: "I've got some really exciting collaborations, I think it's now a time when I can really open up a bit. We're gonna extend this campaign as well and have a long second album. I was actually in the studio with Diplo yesterday which was really exciting and I'm working with Major Lazer and Calvin Harris and I just got out of the studio with Rudimental. I've got fingers in all the pies." Referring to his good friend Calvin, John added: "We're very, very close friends. We spend a lot of time together and I made this whole new record in America and I was literally three doors down from Calvin and he was so brilliant through that time. I mean we've known each other for two years now." Meanwhile, Graham Gouldman was named BMI Icon because of his "unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers". Mick Jagger and Keith Richards received the BMI Million-Air Award for the nine million combined radio plays of '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'. Other writers receiving awards for five million plays include The Bee Gees for 'Islands In The Stream', Sting for 'Roxanne' and Des'ree for 'You Gotta Be'. Celebrating 75 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. For a complete list of 2015 BMI London Award winners, visit www.bmi.com/London.