The 26-year-old beauty’s DJ boyfriend Calvin Harris was notably absent from the bash, but Taylor’s parents and brother were in the crowd to see her pick up her award from Broadcast Music Inc – one of three United States performing rights organisations, along with ASCAP and SESAC.
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After praising Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, the other winners of BMI’s Icon Award, Swift shifted the focus to her own TV viewing habits, admitting, “I recently have had a lot of time off. I’ve been watching a lot of reality TV”.
For only the second time in BMI’s 76-year history, the organization has presented an award in an artist’s name. BMI previously presented prince of pop Michael Jackson an award in his name in 1990.
The “Wildest Dreams” singer, who won for Pop Songwriter of the Year and the first-ever Taylor Swift Award at the awards show, sizzled in a velvet column slip dress by Monique Lhuillier with a black diamond choker by Noudar.
Swift had four of the year’s most-performed songs, which earned her the “pop songwriter of the year” prize.
This was not lost on Swift, who accepted the award with humor when she took the stage, saying, “I’m really super relieved that BMI chose to give me the Taylor Swift Award because if they would have chosen someone else to give the Taylor Swift Award to I’d be kinda bummed about it”.
“She has had a profound impact, not only musically, but also through her personal conviction and commitment to create a standard that values and respects music for everyone”, Cane said. My whole family is here. My dad is filming on his phone.
The BMI keeps tracks of the songs played on radio and television, and collects royalties on behalf of writers and publishers.
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“My favorite part is when I’m in a conversation with my friends and my eyes glaze over and I like awkwardly run into a corner [and start singing a melody] and then I have to explain to them that I have this issue called ‘I love songwriting so much that it interrupts my daily life, ‘” she’s said ending the speech.
