BMI Icons
(May 15, 2007)
BMI Honors The Bee Gees as Icons at 55th Annual Pop Awards
businesswire.com: Kara DioGuardi, Sean Garrett Share Songwriter of The Year Honors; “Because of You” Named Song of The Year; Warner/Chappell Music Takes Publisher of The Year Accolades
BMI staged its 55th Annual Pop Awards on May 15, honoring the Bee Gees as Pop Icons; Kara DioGuardi and Sean Garrett as Songwriters of the Year; “Because of You” as Song of the Year; and Warner/Chappell Music as Publisher of the Year. Hosted by BMI President & CEO Del Bryant and BMI Vice President/General Manager, Los Angeles, Barbara Cane and held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, the black-tie, invitation-only dinner recognized the writers and publishers of the past year’s 50 most performed pop songs from BMI’s catalog of more than 6.5 million compositions.
BMI Pop Awards Song List
A highlight of the ceremony was the musical tribute to legendary singing trio the Bee Gees. The brothers Gibb were honored as BMI Icons for their “unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers.” Accepting the awards were Barry and Robin Gibb, and Yvonne Gibb, wife of the late Maurice Gibb. The tribute saw American Idol finalist Katharine McPhee perform “Immortality,” Bebe Winans singing a medley of “Nights on Broadway” and “How Deep Is Your Love” and Kelly Rowland performing “Emotion.” The musical partnership of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb has produced some of the most timeless songs ever written, including “Night Fever,” “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” “Staying Alive,” “I Started a Joke,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “Jive Talkin,” “You Should Be Dancing” and “Run To Me.” The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees signature three-part harmony has endured for more than four decades, and with this award they join an elite list of previous BMI Icons that includes Crosby, Stills & Nash, Paul Simon, James Brown, Brian Wilson, Isaac Hayes, Dolly Parton and Carlos Santana.
The speeches
Robin: I'd like to thank my wife Dwina, my sons Spencer and Robin John, as well as my daughter Melissa, and any other children I don't know about.....around the world somewhere...but, emmm, that's another story...
Barry: You know? We should say...first of all what a pleasure it is to be amongst other songwriters and people we actually aspire to be. They are in this room tonight and without those people who wrote those incredible songs when we were kids we would've never dreamed of writing a song... [Watch Video]
Robin: I think that the background of the music industry is songwriting, and is probably the most important part of the music industry. I think is more important than artists, because without the songs you don't have anything, and songwriting and songs are still the most important part of the music industry, not technology as people have thought. And young people today is still responsive to greats melodies and lyrics, specially ones about human emotions.
Robin: Is tremendously gratifying and I think, with a conversation I had with Mc Cartney not long ago, is that when we started out, the pair of us, the emphasis was always on melody and emotions, and relationships. And I think that is perennial as grass. Those things go on and on, they're not fashion things, they are always there. [Watch Video]
Barry: It's all incumbent. It isn't just what we did, what we sang, is what other people sang, and that helps to stretch us. So having other people sing our songs was a great compliment to us. And to write something for somebody else was equally a huge thing so, no it didn't matter whether it was us, or someone else.
Barry: Yes, of course it is. There are songs like "How can you mend a broken heart," or "Emotions," or "How deep is your love," that just seem to have lasted, you know? We can't explain that, but is still great when we hear them on the radio, and there's no way we can figure those things out. [Watch Video]
[Posted by Ana from Ellan Vannin]
Streisand phones in Gibb tribute
PR Inside: «BARBRA STREISAND stunned BARRY GIBB on Tuesday night (15May07) by taking time out of her schedule to phone in a message congratulating the Bee Gees star on his latest accolade.
Gibb was surprised with a BMI Icon honour at the music organisation's annual gala, which was announced by Streisand via a video message.
The diva explained she had hoped to be at the event - to pay tribute to her old friend personally - but she was working on her upcoming concert DVD and couldn't get away.
Streisand said, "Barry, can you believe it's been 27 years since we made Guilty?"»
