The 58th Annual ASCAP Country Music Awards, produced 2020-style in an innovative virtual format, was a winner across all digital platforms.
Highlights from the event included: Welcoming remarks from ASCAP Chairman of the Board and President, Paul Williams: “Your songs lifted our spirits, brought meaning to our lives and inspired us to keep going. That deserves to be celebrated.” LINK
ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year Ashley Gorley, quarantining in Florida, gave thanks to the co-writers and artists responsible for seven of his #1 songs that earned him the top honor. “Thank you to my co-writers on the seven songs being honored this year; these songs wouldn’t get written without you; I lean on you so heavy as friends and co-creators… Thank you to the artists… Brett Young, Chris Janson, Chris Lane, Dierks Bentley, Dustin Lynch, LOCASH and Thomas Rhett… Thank you guys so much for trusting me with your songs, for playing these, for pushing these, for believing in these songs. ”
Old Dominion and their “One Man Band” co-writer Josh Osborne received the news of their ASCAP Country Song of the Year honor via an unexpected cameo from Paul Williams on a Zoom call with executives from the ASCAP Nashville office. LINK Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen and Brad Tursi marked the occasion with a beautiful acoustic performance of “One Man Band,” joined by Osborne.
“I never in a million years thought that this song that I wrote as an apology was going to kind of change my whole world this year,” Carly Pearce said before performing her CMA Award-winning hit, “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”
Matt Stell turned in a special acoustic performance of his hit, “Prayed for You.”
Brett Young shared a message of thanks for his award, saying “What’s up ASCAP family… Thank you so much for all the incredible support that you always give, especially this year to ‘Catch’ to help make it one of the most-performed songs of the year… and a big congratulations to my buddy and co-writer on this song, Ashley Gorley… you’re gonna run out of wall space pretty soon, buddy!”
Garth Brooks, this year’s Billboard ICON recipient, was an ASCAP winner for “Dive Bar,” along with songwriter Bryan Kennedy. Kennedy expressed his thanks: “I’m very blessed to have written this with Mitch Rossell and Garth Brooks… us songwriters know we’re nothing without the studio musicians, the producers and of course the artists, the record labels, all the radio stations, but especially tonight, thank you ASCAP for being in my corner for so many years and continuing to fight for the songwriter.”
Hit writer Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd shared that this is his first ASCAP Country Award, for Dan + Shay/Justin Bieber’s “10,000 Hours,” a hit he co-wrote with Bieber, Dan Smyers and Jordan Reynolds.
Dan Smyers of Dan + Shay posted on @dansmyers, “I just wanted to say thank you so much for the two ASCAP awards this year, ‘10,000 Hours’ and ‘All to Myself.’ None of these awards would be possible without you guys, the fans, listening to these songs, the radio stations playing them… y’all are incredible man, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts, we love you.”
Justin Weaver reminded us that “2020’s been a crazy year, but this was a good highlight” as he accepted his award for the #1 hit, “After a Few.”
Jennifer Denmark looked like she snuck onto the red carpet in full party wear to pose with her award for Jimmie Allen’s “Make Me Want To.”
Warner Chappell Music Nashville President Ben Vaughn accepted the ASCAP Country Music Publisher of the Year award on video from his car in front of ASCAP Nashville headquarters. “We wanted to say thanks to ASCAP, thanks to Guy [Moot] and Carianne [Marshall] for all their support, thank you to our songwriters for being amazing and also our team wants to say thanks to everyone.”
The video wraps up with a montage of “thank yous” from 16 Warner Chappell Music team members.
BMG celebrated 2020-style with outdoor social distancing and confetti poppers as they honored their award-winning songwriters.
Universal Music Publishing Group delivered a video congratulating their winning songwriters.
Endurance Music Group’s President Michael Martin accepted their award for Jimmie Allen’s “Make Me Want To,” saying, “Hey ASCAP Nashville…I just want to say on behalf of Endurance Music Group thank you for all the extra work you guys have done to make the awards happen this year. I want to also say congrats to Paul Sikes, Matt Stell, Jimmie Allen and producer Ash Bowers, it’s pretty cool for us to be part of this journey with them…. Hopefully we can celebrate in person soon.”
Also the ASCAP will celebrate its CMA Awards winners on social media including country music legend Charley Pride, who received the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. Other ASCAP CMA winners include Old Dominion (Vocal Group of the Year), Dan + Shay (Vocal Duo of the Year), Carly Pearce (Musical Event of the Year – “I Hope You’re Happy Now”), Jimmy Robbins (Song of the Year co-writer – “The Bones”) and Greg Kurstin (Single of the Year producer/mix engineer – “The Bones”).
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