Legendary music creators Carole Bayer Sager and Mike Stoller will be honored as BMI Icons on May 10 in Beverly Hills.
In addition to celebrating their timeless contributions to the art of songwriting, the honorees behind BMI’s pop song of the year, songwriter of the year, publisher of the year and BMI’s top 50 most-performed pop songs in the U.S. of the previous year will also be named.
“BMI is thrilled to be honoring two iconic songwriters, Carole Bayer Sager and Mike Stoller, alongside the creators of some of today’s most-performed songs,” said vice president of worldwide creative Barbara Cane. “As we commemorate BMI’s 70th Pop Awards, we pay homage to the craft of these two musical legends and their timeless contributions to BMI and the great American songbook. We’re proud to present them with the BMI Icon Award for their lasting impression on fans worldwide and on the songwriters following the path they’ve laid out to musical greatness, which is second to none.”
BMI’s family of songwriters and publishers will also be celebrated throughout the evening with the revealing of the 50 most-performed pop songs in the United States from BMI’s repertoire of more than 18.7 million musical works.
Sager’s career spans over five decades and is responsible for lyrics to popular songs including “Nobody Does It Better,” “A Groovy Kind of Love,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” and the Oscar-winning theme from the movie “Arthur,” “Best That You Can Do.”
Sager has also been the recipient of 26 BMI Awards, and she was named BMI’s pop songwriter of the year in 1977.
Songwriter Stoller is one-half of the legendary team of Leiber & Stoller, whose iconic partnership spanned decades and spawned hits such as “Hound Dog,” “Love Me,” and “Jailhouse Rock.”
The duo are also responsible for writing and producing “Love Potion Number 9,” “I’m A Woman,” and “Is That All There Is?” as well as “On Broadway” co-written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and “Stand by Me” co-written with Ben E. King.
Sager and Stoller will join previous Icons honorees, Barry Manilow, The Bee Gees, Brian Wilson, Carlos Santana, Carole King, Crosby, Stills & Nash, David Foster, Dolly Parton, the Jacksons, John Fogerty, Kris Kristofferson, Mann & Weil, Merle Haggard, Nile Rodgers, Paul Simon, Stevie Nicks, Sting and Willie Nelson.
