Johnny McDaid Receives BMI President’s Award at 2026 BMI London Awards
“luther” became the first song to win song of the year at BMI’s Pop, R&B/Hip Hop and London Awards.
Johnny McDaid was honored with the BMI President’s Award at the 2026 BMI London Awards on Tuesday, September 28. The event, hosted by BMI CEO Mike O’Neill and Executive VP, Chief Revenue & Creative Officer Mike Steinberg, celebrated the most-performed songs from the previous year across various mediums including U.S. streaming, radio, film, television, and visual media.
McDaid expressed his gratitude, stating, "We make a song, the song goes into the world. It finds someone out there, another childhood, another way of understanding love or loss. 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."
Other awards presented included the Million-Air awards for 6 million U.S. performances of "Bad Habits" and 8 million for "Shape of You," as well as a BMI award for co-writing "Azizam," a song that ranked among the most-performed pop songs that year. This brings McDaid's total BMI awards to 18, along with additional accolades such as BMI Pop and London Song of the Year for "Shape of You" and "Bad Habits" in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
The ceremony also recognized several other notable songwriters and publishers for their contributions to the music industry.
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