sesac hosted its 20th annual Pop Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street on Monday, April 18, with an event attended by the music industry’s top leaders, artists, songwriters and publishers. Jimmy Napes captured the evening’s top honors by being named Songwriter of the Year. Napes was also honored with the Song of the Year Award for penning the Sam Smith-recorded hit, “I’m Not The Only One.” Universal Tunes was named Publisher of the Year for the 2nd year in a row.
Napes, a longtime collaborator with Sam Smith, is a two-time sesac Songwriter of the Year. He also took the top honor in 2015, as well as winning the sesac Song of the Year award for writing “Stay With Me,” the multiple Grammy Award-winning song recorded by Smith. In addition to Napes’ string of radio successes, he recently won an Academy Award for best original song for “Writing’s On The Wall” from the James Bond film Spectre.
SESAC’s Trevor Gale and Linda Lorence Critelli hosted the event, which featured exciting performances, including American Idol winner Nick Fradiani singing his coronation single, “Beautiful Life”, and Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld singing her debut single “Love Myself.”
DTS, Inc., was the premiere sponsor of the sesac Pop Awards. City National Bank also served as a sponsor of the event with The London NYC serving as the exclusive hotel sponsor of the award
