Phil Wickham was named Songwriter of the Year at the 2024 BMI Christian Awards held on Tuesday (June 18) at the BMI office in Nashville. AVP of creative BMI, Nashville, Leslie Roberts hosted the invitation-only ceremony.
Wickham, 40, co-wrote four of this year's award-winning songs – 'Holy Forever', 'Hymn of Heaven', 'Then Christ Came' and 'This Is Our God'. Wickham has received three Grammy nominations in the past two years, including one for his album Believe at the February 4 ceremony. He has amassed 11 top 10 hits Advertising signof the Hot Christian Songs chart, including “House of the Lord,” which reached No. 1 in 2022.
Wickham performed an acoustic cover of his song “Hymn of Heaven” at the event.
“Gratitude” was named Song of the Year for 2024. It was written by BMI songwriters Dante Bowe and Ben Hastings (APRA) and recorded by Brandon Lake, the song spent 28 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs. The track, which appears on Lake's album, House of Miraclesreceived nominations from the 2023 GMA Dove Awards for Song of the Year and Worship Recorded Song of the Year.
Essential Music Publishing won Publisher of the Year. Essential are responsible for 12 of the 25 most performed songs of the year – 'Cornerstone', 'God Is in This Story', 'Heart of God', 'Holy Forever', 'I Thank God', 'I'm So Blessed', 'Perfectly Beloved', 'God Himself', 'Thank God', 'Then Christ Came', 'This Is Our God' and 'Who Am I'.
In addition, the ceremony recognized 21 first-time winners for their roles in writing the top 25 most-performed Christian songs of the previous year. They included pop powerhouses P!nk and Jeff Baskerwho co-wrote Lauren Daigle's hit “Thank God I Do,” which topped Hot Christian Songs for 20 weeks.
Three first-time winners were double winners on the night — Jonathan Jay (“Fear Not Is My Future” and “Rest on Us”) and Jacob Mills and Levi Mills (“God Is Real” and “Never Not God”).
The full list of winners can be found here.
Wickham wasn't the only performer of the night. Anne Wilson, 22, offered a stripped-down version of her hit, “Strong,” accompanied by 2023 BMI Songwriter of the Year Jeff Pardo. Newcomer Charlie Beathard she made her BMI debut with “Hallelujah Anyway”.
