Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®) will celebrate the extraordinary and inspirational career of Steven Curtis Chapman by presenting him with the BMI Icon Award at the Company’s annual BMI Christian Awards, to be held at BMI’s Nashville office on June 14, 2022. Chapman will be the first Christian music artist to be honored with the prestigious BMI Icon Award. BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill will host the ceremony with Leslie Roberts, BMI AVP, Creative, Nashville.
The BMI Icon Award is presented to songwriters who have distinctly and profoundly influenced the music industry, leaving an indelible and unique influence on generations of music makers. In receiving this accolade, Chapman will join an elite group of songwriters who have received BMI’s highest honor. Previous recipients include Barry Manilow, Brian Wilson, Carole King, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Sting, and Nile Rodgers.
“It is truly an honor to celebrate the inspirational career of Steven Curtis Chapman by presenting him with our BMI Icon Award,” says Leslie Roberts, AVP, Creative, Nashville. “His career has spanned three decades, and he has provided countless songs of peace, comfort, and faith to millions of fans worldwide. His name is synonymous with Christian music, but his collaborations across genres have broken boundaries and helped to spread his message of hope and light to all who hear the songs he’s written.”
Steven Curtis Chapman is the most awarded artist in Christian music history. With a career that has spanned over thirty years, he has received 59 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, five GRAMMYs®, and an American Music Award. He has had 49 No. 1 singles, sold more than eleven million albums and has ten RIAA-certified gold or platinum albums to his credit. He has collaborated with, and had his songs recorded by, other renowned artists in the Christian music world including BeBe Winans, CeCe Winans, Amy Grant, Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Geoff Moore, and others. His songs of hope have also crossed genres, seeing collaborations Billy Dean, Glenn Campbell, Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts, Ricky Skaggs, Brad Paisley, and Lauren Alaina. In 2017, Chapman also became a best-selling author with his memoir Between Heaven and the Real World: My Story. A vocal supporter of adoption, Chapman, along with his wife Mary Beth, founded Show Hope in 2003, a nonprofit organization that helps restore the hope of a family to orphans.
In addition to Chapman’s award, BMI will also crown the Christian Songwriter, Song and Publisher of the Year, as well as salute the writers and publishers of the past year’s 25 most-performed songs from BMI’s Christian catalog at the invitation-only event.
