2012 SESAC Pop Music Awards

NEW YORK, NY (May 11, 2012) – Last night, SESAC, the nation’s fastest growing performing rights organization, awarded Rico Love with top honors at the 16th Annual SESAC Pop Music Awards when he was named Songwriter of the Year, at NYC’s Skylight Soho. Multi-platinum superstar Usher made a surprise appearance at the awards to present his friend and collaborator Love with the prestigious award.

Songwriter Jacob Luttrell captured Song of the Year honors for smash hit, “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)” as recorded by Enrique Iglesias.

SESAC Publisher of the Year honors went to EMI Foray Music.

Love has enjoyed an extraordinary year by anyone’s estimation. One of pop music’s most prolific and diverse creative talents, Love hit the top of the charts in the last couple of years with “There Goes My Baby” and “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)” by Usher (featuring Plies) as well as “Just A Dream” by Nelly and “Hello Good Morning” (co-written with fellow SESAC hit-maker Nate “Danja” Hills) and recorded by Diddy-Dirty Money (featuring T.I. and Rick Ross) and “Sweet Dreams” by Beyonce. The past year proved to be another successful one for the busy songwriter/producer as he again ruled the charts with “Motivation” (by Kelly Rowland) and “Without You” (by David Guetta featuring Usher).

Pop/ R&B songstress Melanie Fiona delivered a soulful version of her current single, “4:00 am,” a song written by Rico Love.

One of the evening’s many highlights was the Inspiration Award presentation to Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer, Bryan-Michael Cox in recognition of his artistic, entrepreneurial and philanthropic contributions. In a short amount of time, Cox has established himself as one of music’s most gifted and prolific music-makers. Since hitting the music scene he has made a major impact with his songwriting and producing skills on such hits as Mariah Carey’s “Don’t Forget About Us”, Usher’s “Burn”, “You Got It Bad” and “Confessions Pt. 2” and took home a Grammy Award for his work on Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You.” Currently, Cox has projects in the works with such superstars as Mariah Carey, Brandy, Monica and Babyface. Cox is also working with songwriting/producing giant Rico Love on projects for Kelly Rowland, Tierra Mari and Trey Songz.

A noted humanitarian, Cox has served on the advisory board of 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, a non-profit organization that helps identify, finance and mentor entrepreneurs from economically disadvantaged communities – often through live business-pitch events in cities across the United States – in order to highlight the urban community’s untapped business potential and demonstrate, to an additional 1 million-plus entrepreneurs, a proven path forward to business and financial success. Bryan tours the country serving as a judge at these live pitch events and ultimately acts as a mentor to the program’s participants. In addition, Bryan works with The Travis Best Foundation, a non-profit founded by former NBA player Travis Best that helps underserved youth through arts and athletics. Each year, Bryan dedicates a weekend in Springfield Massachusetts during The Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Weekend where he works hands on with youth that have an interest in songwriting and production. Bryan hosts workshops where he tutors kids ages 13 – 17 in music production, songwriting, music business and publishing.

The 2012 awards celebration drew more than 400 songwriters, publishers and industry professionals. The star-studded attendees including Love, Fiona, Cox, Greg Curtis and Traci Hale among many others. There were more than 40 songwriter and publisher award recipients in the categories of Pop, R&B/Hip-Hop, and Rock.

Established in 1930, SESAC is a service organization created to assist both the creators of music and music users through timely, efficient royalty collection and music licensing. SESAC maintains a diversified repertory that includes virtually all genres of music. Headquartered in Nashville, the company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and London (www.sesac.com).

A COMPLETE LIST OF SESAC AWARD RECIPIENTS FOLLOWS:
Songwriter of the Year:
Rico Love

Song of the Year:
“Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)”
Written by Jacob Luttrell
Published by: Artist Publishing Group East & LSLX Music

Publisher of the Year:
EMI Foray Music

“Inspiration Award”
Bryan-Michael Cox

“Motivation”
Recorded by: Kelly Rowland feat. Lil Wayne
Songwriter: Rico Love
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Rico Love Is Still A Rapper

“Without You”
Recorded by: David Guetta feat. Usher
Songwriter: Rico Love
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Rico Love Is Still A Rapper

“Just A Dream”
Recorded by: Nelly
Songwriter: Rico Love
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Rico Love Is Still A Rapper

“There Goes My Baby”
Recorded by: Usher
Songwriter: Rico Love
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Rico Love Is Still A Rapper

“Just A Kiss”
Recorded by: Lady Antebellum
Songwriter: Hillary Scott
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Hillary Dawn Songs

“I Run To You”
Recorded by: Lady Antebellum
Songwriter: Hillary Scott
Publisher(s): Shaw Enuff Songs

“Need You Now”
Recorded by: Lady Antebellum
Songwriter: Hillary Scott
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Hillary Dawn Songs

“Little Lion Man”
Recorded by: Mumford & Sons
Songwriter(s): Edward Dwane, Benjamin Lovett, Winston Marshall, Marcus Mumford
Publisher: Universal Tunes

“The Cave”
Recorded by: Mumford & Sons
Songwriter(s): Edward Dwane, Benjamin Lovett, Winston Marshall, Marcus Mumford
Publisher(s): Universal Tunes

“I’m On One”
Recorded by: DJ Khaled feat. Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne
Songwriter: Nikhil Seetharam
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Kromatik Music

“Make Me Proud”
Recorded by: Drake feat. Nicki Minaj
Songwriter: Nikhil Seetharam
Publisher: EMI Foray Music, Kromatik Music

“Moment 4 Life”
Recorded by: Nicki Minaj feat. Drake
Songwriter: Nikhil Seetharam
Publisher(s): EMI Foray Music, Kromatik Music

“Lotus Flower Bomb”
Recorded by: Wale feat. Miguel
Songwriter: Samuel Dew
Publisher: By the Chi Publishing

“Out Of My Head”
Recorded by: Lupe Fiasco feat. Trey Songz
Songwriter: Miykal Snoddy
Publisher(s): Makithot Music Publishing

“What’s My Name”
Recorded by: Rhianna feat. Drake
Songwriter: Traci Hale
Publisher(s): Hale Yeah Music, peertunes Ltd.

“Bottoms Up”
Recorded by: Trey Songz feat. Nicki Minaj
Songwriter: Milton “Track Dealer”
James Publisher(s): iHip Hop Music

“Can’t Be Friends”
Recorded by: Trey Songz
Songwriter: Claude Forbes
Publisher(s): S dat Quo

“Cupid”
Recorded by: Lloyd feat. Awesome Jones
Songwriter(s): Greg Curtis, Jason Perry
Publisher(s): Cardraygee Music Publishing, Jasons Lyrics, Reach Global Tunes & Universal Tunes

“Did It On ‘Em”
Recorded by: Nicki Minaj
Songwriter: Safaree Samuels
Publisher(s): Scaffboogs Music

“Aston Martin Music”
Recorded by: Rick Ross featuring Drake & Chrisette Michele
Songwriter: Chrisette Michele
Publisher(s): Chrisette Michele LLC, EMI Foray Music, Four Kings Publishing