Many in Nashville's elite country songwriting community were honored in the Country Music Hall of Fame on Thursday evening (October 24) as the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) held its 2024 Gold and Platinum Gala, honoring many of songwriters back multiple RIAA-certified singles within the 2023-2024 eligibility period.
Before the ceremony began, guests and honorees mingled during a reception, enjoying hors d'oeuvres. NMPA President/CEO David Israelite opened the evening in the Country Music Hall of Fame's sixth-floor lobby overlooking downtown Nashville, calling the certifications “the clearest measure of songwriters' success.”
The evening featured nearly 120 multi-platinum honorees from the Nashville songwriting community, with more than 150 gold, platinum and multi-platinum writers in attendance. Ninety-one songs were honored to earn double platinum or higher certification for the eligibility period.
Uniquely, the night's honorees spanned decades, earning new credentials for Toby Keith's 1990s hit “Should've Been a Cowboy,” while other honorees, such as “A Bar song (Tipsy),” of Shaboozey were released just months ago.
Israelite also recognized the essential advocacy work and support of RIAA President/CEO Mitch Glazier and Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Executive Director Bart Herbison in making the evening honoring songwriters possible.
Bailey Zimmerman brought his joyful energy to the stage, reminiscing a bit about his songwriting process and how he combined the chorus of one song idea with the verse of another idea to form one of his breakthrough hits, the 4x platinum “Fall in Love. “You just show up every day and keep writing songs because you never know what it's going to be,” Zimmerman said, before also performing “Rock and A Hard Place.”
“My first platinum record, yes!” singer-songwriter Hailey Whitters said earlier in the evening, before performing her RIAA platinum hit 'Everything She Ain't'.
Breland performed the gold-certified “For What It's Worth,” delivering one of the best vocals of the night. He followed with his new song 'Same Work', from his new album Project 2024.
Throughout the evening, NMPA Exec. Vice president and general counsel Danielle Aguirre recognized those writers celebrating 2x platinum songs, while NMPA senior vice president of external affairs Charlotte Sellmyer revealed more multi-platinum songs.
Later in the evening, the late Country Music Hall of Famer Toby Keith, TK Kimbrell, accepted on behalf of the late Keith, for Keith's 3x platinum “Should've Been a Cowboy” and 2x platinum “How Do You Like Me” Now ?!', while Keith's longtime songwriting partner Scotty Emerick took to the likes of the 3x platinum 'As Good As I Once Was' and the 2x platinum 'Beer For My Horses' and 'I Love This Bar'.
Also celebrated was the late songwriter Kyle Jacobs, for his work on the 5x multi-platinum hit “Rumor.” Jacobs' parents, Reed and Sherry Jacobs, accepted the honor on his behalf and received a standing ovation from the crowd of Nashville music publishers and songwriters, many of whom have worked with Jacobs over the years.
The male songwriter of the year award went to Ashley Gorley. Notably, the prolific Gorley beat out singer-songwriter Zach Bryan to win the NMPA's single-song certification honor this year.
Israelite called Gorley “a primary creator of today's country sound and why it has achieved an unprecedented crossover appeal.” Gourley briefly thanked his co-writers, as well as the publishers at Sony Music Publishing, and his colleagues at Tape Room Music, saying simply and sincerely, “Thank you for this.”
Female Songwriter of the Year honors went to Jessi Alexander, for her work on songs including Luke Combs' “5 Leaf Clover,” Little Big Town's “You, Me and Whiskey,” and “The Way I Talk” by Morgan Wallen.
“I thought I'd be working at Subway forever, but thank you for giving me my dream job, which is writing songs,” Alexander said, before thanking her husband, songwriter Jon Randall, as well as her publishers, including of Warner Chappell Music Nashville's president/CEO Ben Vaughn and vice president, A&R and digital Jessi Vaughn Stevenson.
The night closed with Israelite introducing Jordan Davis who performed the double platinum certified 'Next Thing You Know' and the 4x platinum 'buy Dirt'. “I always say that this song was written about the three most important things in my life: my faith in Jesus, my wife, my kids – my family – and my friends,” Davis said of “buy Dirt ».
Addressing the songwriters, publishers and other industry members in the room, Davis added: “Thank you for what you do day in and day out. I'm grateful to be in Nashville, Tennessee, getting to be a songwriter with all of you.”
See the full list of honored songwriters and songs below:
Double Platinum Songs:
Chase McGill and Jaren Johnston for “5 Foot 9”
Blake Pendergrass for “865”
Danny Orton for “19 You + Me”
Jerrell Jones and Mark Williams on “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Brandon Kinney and Josh Thompson for “Ain't Always the Cowboy”
Carson Chamberlain and Wade Kirby on “All Over The Road”
Hilary Lindsay and Jordan Davis for 'Almost Maybes'
Chris DeStefano on “Aw Naw”
Chris Lane and Jacob Durrett for “Big, Big Plans”
Drew Parker on “Doin' This”
Luke Laird on “Down To The Honkytonk”
Ben Burgess and Mark Holman for “Flower Shops”
Ben Jonson on 'Give Heaven Some Hell'
Barry Dean on “Heartache Medicine”
Jonathan Singleton on “Houston, We've Got a Problem”
Brett Jones and Rob Hatches for “If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away”
Chris DeStefano and Josh Hoge on “Losing Sleep”
Billy Montana & Brian Davis on “Memory I Don't Mess With”
Daniel Breland, Devon Barton, Edrick Miles, Kalvin Austin, Tatiana Zeigler and Troy Taylor for “My Truck”
Chase McGill, Greylan James and Jordan Davis for “Next Thing You Know”
Chris DeStefano on “Nothin' Like You”
Brett James and Tony Lane for “On My Way to You”
Jared Keim and Ryan Beaver for “Pretty Little Poison”
Alexander Palmer, Austin Shawn, Bailey Zimmerman, Frank Romano and Marty James for “Religiously”
Josh Kerr for She Likes
Sergio Sanchez for “Spin You Around”
Ben Williams, David Fanning and Paul Jenkins for 'Tennessee Orange'
Gary Hannan on “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off”
Andy Albert, Dustin Lynch and Will Weatherly on “Thinking 'Bout You”
Jordan Schmidt and Renee Blair on “Wait in the Truck”
Jordan Davis and Ryan Hurd for 'What My World Spins Around'
Lindsay Rimes for “Whiskey on You”
Paul Jenkins on “Who I Am With You”
Tofer Brown for “Wine, Beer, Whiskey”
3x Platinum Songs:
Johnny Bulford, Jon Stone and Phil Barton for “A Woman Like You”
Jordan Reynolds and Nicole Gallion for “All To Myself”
Wayne Kirkpatrick for “Boondocks”
Dave Barnes and Julian Bunetta on “Craving You”
Eric Paslay on “Even It Break Your Heart”
Chris DeStefano on 'From the Ground Up'
Brock Berryhill, Shy Carter, Taylor Phillips and Will Weatherly on “Good As You”
Brock Berryhill, Matt McGinn and Taylor Phillips for 'Homesick'
Chase McGill and Will Weatherly on “Lose It”
Billy Montana and Tofer Brown on “Night Shift”
Hilary Lindsay and Jake Mitchell for 'One Beer'
Brad Warren, Brett Warren and Jim Beavers for the “Red Solo Cup”
Mark Sanders and Tim Nichols on “She Had Me At Heads Carolina”
Jacob Durrett for “Somebody's Problem”
Christian Stalnecker and Josh Hoge for “Thank God”
Dan Isbell, Reid Isbell and Jamie Davis for “The Kind of Love We Make”
Ben Hayslip, Chase McGill and Jessi Alexander for “The Way I Talk”
Charlie Handsome and Taylor Phillips on “Thinkin' Bout Me”
Anthony Smith for “Tomorrow”
Brian White, Rodney Atkins and Steve Dean for “Watching You”
4x Platinum Songs:
Jacob Davis, Jordan Davis and Joshua Jenkins for 'buy Dirt'
Austin Shawn, Bailey Zimmerman and Gavin Lucas on “Fall In Love”
Rachel Thibodeau for “Good Directions”
Bart Butler on “Heartache On The Dancefloor”
Ben Hayslip and Rhett Akins for “Huntin', Fishin', and Lovin' Every Day”
Corey Crowder and Josh Hoge on “I'm Comin' Over”
Jason Matthews and Marty Dodson and for “Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right”
Ben Johnson for 'One Of Them Girls'
Nicolle Galyon on “Thought You Should Know”
Charlie Handsome for “You Proof”
5x Platinum Songs:
Ben Glover, Billy Montana and John Ozier on 'Hard to Love'
Sammy Mitchell and Steven Battey on “One Number Away”
Heath Warren and Jet Harvey for “Rock and a Hard Place”
Kyle Jacobs for “Rumor”
Brad Clawson for “Up Down”
6x Platinum Songs:
Jonathan Singleton on 'Beer Never Break My Heart'
Jamie Moore on “Chasin' You”
Joshua Jenkins and Shane Stevens for “Fancy Like”
Charlie Handsome for “More Than My Hometown”
7x Platinum Songs:
Charlie Handsome and Ryan Hurd on “Heartless”
Charlie Handsome for “Last Night”
Channing Wilson and Rob Snyder for “She Got The Best of Me”
Jordan Reynolds and Laura Veltz for “Speechless”
8x Platinum Song:
Charlie Handsome and Josh Thompson on “Wasted On You”
9x Platinum Songs:
Taylor Phillips and Thomas Archer for 'Hurricane'
Jordan Schmidt and Matthew McGinn for “What Ifs”
Ben Burgess and Kevin Kadish for “Whiskey Glasses”
10x Platinum Songs:
Lindsay Rimes, Matthew McGinn and Shy Carter for 'Platinum Heaven'
Trent Tomlinson and Tyler Reeve for 'In Case You Didn't Know'
12x platinum song:
Charles Kelley on “Need You Now”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/ashley-gorley-jessi-alexander-nmpa-gold-platinum-gala-1235811139/