Entertainment

Legendary songwriter and performer Stevie Wonder presented with ASCAP’s inaugural “Key of Life Award

Published on April 19, 2017

NEW YORK, April 10, 2017 — ASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers,gathered an full line-up of programming for the 12th annual ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO, April 13-15 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. This year’s collection of panels and performances was curated by ASCAP to provide songwriters, producers and composers with an inside look at the opportunities and challenges pertinent to today’s industry.

The “Key of Life” Award (presented to Wonder in Braille) reads: “Presented to Stevie Wonder, Who inspires and elevates the world through his songs, his spirit and his boundless heart”
The “Key of Life” Award celebrates Wonder’s incomparable, peerless contributions to the world through his music. In the future, the honor will be presented to songwriters and composers who best exemplify his legacy through their commitment to the art form he elevated through his talent, dedication and unparalleled heart.
“Stevie has deservedly been given every award imaginable,” said ASCAP President Paul Williams. “Yet he continues to innovate and elevate the art of songwriting to the point where no honor can truly capture what he means to his creative kin at ASCAP, and to songwriters and music lovers worldwide. This award has been created as a way to honor his singularly inspirational songwriting career and to recognize his spirit in generations to come.”
The 25-time Grammy winner has been an ASCAP member for the better part of five decades, amassing more than 60 Billboard Hot 100 hits during his time with the performing rights organization, including immortal anthems like “Superstition,” “My Cherie Amour,” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours,” “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” He received ASCAP’s highest individual prize, the Founders Award, in 1984 and was honored during the organization’s 100th birthday celebrations with a once-in-a-lifetime Centennial Award. Wonder has maintained a lifelong appreciation for songwriting, penning his first hit at 11 years old and working in Motown’s songwriting department while establishing himself as a performer in the mid-1960s. In recent years, Wonder has mentored a new generation of songwriters, working with fellow ASCAP members Ariana Grande and Francis Farewell Starlite on the Golden Globe-nominated 2016 single “Faith” from the hit film Sing.

In the future, the honor will be presented to music creators who best exemplify Wonder’s legacy through their commitment to the art form.

Panelists include hitmakers that span genres and generations across the music business, including legendary musician Stevie Wonder, who will appear in a keynote “I Create Music” session and accept the inaugural “Key of Life” Award. Other panelists include platinum-selling recording artist Aloe Blacc, Songwriters Hall of Fame member Desmond Child, four-time ASCAP Country Music Songwriter of the Year Ashley Gorley, writer/producer Greg Wells (Katy Perry, Keith Urban, Adele, Twenty One Pilots) andGet Out film composer Michael Abels; Grammy winners Darrell Brown (Keith Urban, LeAnn Rimes), Brian Kennedy (Rihanna) and Malik Yusef (Kanye West, Beyoncé); and the next generation of hit songwriters, including Dave Bassett (Elle King’s “Ex’s and Oh’s”), Bibi Bourelly (Rihanna’s “B***h Better Have My Money”), Deputy (J. Cole’s 4 Your Eyez Only), Captain Cuts (Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance”), Sam Hollander (Fitz and the Tantrums’ “HandClap”), Matt Jenkins (Kenny Chesney ft. Pink’s “Setting the World on Fire”) and Priscilla Renea (Miranda Lambert ft. Carrie Underwood

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