The Songwriters of North America honored Chappell Roan, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Primary Wave founder and CEO Larry Mestel, prolific music attorney Dina LaPolt and Girls Make Beats founder Tiffany Miranda at the organization’s annual SONA Warrior Awards in Los Angeles Sunday evening for a night that both honored songwriting and sounded the alarm on systemic issues plaguing the music business.
The event, now in its fifth year, brought together a slew of executives including Sony Music Publishing CEO John Platt, Warner Chappell COO Carianne Marshall and recently-departed Epic Records CEO Sylvia Rhone alongside hitmakers like Desmond Child, CeeLo Green, Tayla Parks as well as congress members Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost and Angie Craig among many others.
The first honoree of the evening was Girls Make Beats and Miranda, who was introduced by Janelle Monae, who had cited Miranda as a teacher to help her learn how to produce tracks.
“Thank you so much Tiffany, for seeing me and wanting me to find my power,” Monae said. “Your vision with Girls Make Beats reminds all of us that representation isn’t just about being seen, it’s about creating a wrold where others can see themselves too. You turn empowerment into action, and your work continues to amplify voices that will shape the future of sound.”
Roan was the second award recipient, accepting her award virtually with a pre-recorded video message after being presented by her “Good Luck, Babe!” and “My Kink is Karma” co-writer Justin Tranter. SONA selected Roan for the Warrior Award months after the pop star used her best new artist Grammy acceptance speech to call for better wages and healthcare for music creators. Securing widespread access to healthcare remains one of SONA’s biggest priorities.
“To the music community, thank you for really hearing me when I said songwriters and artists need help in my Grammys speech,” Roan said in her video. “Songwriters are the backbone of the music industry, and they deserve respect, fair pay and access to more affordable healthcare. There’s a lot of change needed not only within the entertainment industry but the whole world. We must be the blueprint for change. There are people in this room right now who have the power to do it.”
Aside from the awards themselves, the night was hosted by songwriters Bonnie McKee and Shane Stevens. It featured Linda Perry giving a surprise performance of “What’s Up” in honor of LaPolt, with Perry at one point briefly coming off stage and sharing the mic with the attorney. Paul Anka serenaded Primary Wave’s Mestel with a version of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” set to lyrics about the executive and his music company. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis performed a medley with Shawn Stockman, and Desmond Child led a singalong of “Livin’ On A Prayer” to close out the evening.
For the first time, SONA also gave the emerging songwriter award, with the inaugural honor going to Toby Lightman.
Fitting to an event called the Warrior Awards, advocacy and fighting for a more just music business was the through line of much of the night. During her opening remarks, SONA CEO Michelle Lewis had pointed to a sobering report that listed songwriting as one of the professions most in danger of outsourcing to artificial intelligence, but she also pointed to victories from SONA this year such as the organization’s partnership with Amazon One to bring medical subscriptions to SONA members.
Meanwhile, during his acceptance speech, Mestel took aim at Spotify over the streaming service’s controversial audiobook bundling strategy it embraced that led to decreased payments to songwriters.
“There are no songs without songwriters, there are no artists without songs, there is no Spotify without songwriters,” Mestel said. “Shame on Spotify… for that bundling crap. Fuck Spotify.”
LaPolt, who co-founded SONA a decade ago, recalled the beginnings of the organization and their fight to pass the Music Modernization Act. She said that the U.S. is in “a very dangerous place” as the “constructs put in place to protect the vulnerable and marginalized” are now being “deconstructed.” LaPolt also advocated for the No Fakes Act, the federal bill that seeks to take on unauthorized uses of voices and likenesses for AI-generated deepfakes.
“Advocacy isn’t about waiting for respect,” LaPolt said. “It’s about showing up so prepared, so relentless, that people have no choice but to fucking respect you.”
Ross Golan, a recipient at last year’s awards and now a board member on SONA, also gave an intense speech calling attention to the long-running issue of non-songwriters taking publishing credits and royalties on songs they didn’t actually write. As Golan said, it’s time for that practice to finally stop.
“A copyright is melody and lyrics, that’s it. Everything else is a myth,” Golan said. “That person who changed the chords after the song was written? Talented, earned their fee. Not a writer. The guy who added drums? Thanks for the beat, get your fee. Not a writer. The demo singer, the vocal producer? Great work, not writers. The artist who records and tours your song? Invaluable, but still not a writer. The manager or A&R who demands publishing? I don’t know what that is but that’s certainly not songwriting.”