Phil Wickham was named songwriter of the year at the 2024 BMI Christian Awards, which were held Tuesday (June 18) at BMI’s Nashville’s office. BMI’s AVP of creative, Nashville, Leslie Roberts hosted the invitation-only ceremony.
Wickham, 40, had a hand in writing 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 I Believe at the Feb. 4 ceremony. He has amassed 11 top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart, including “House of the Lord,” which reached No. 1 in 2022.
Wickham performed an acoustic rendition of his song “Hymn of Heaven” at the event.
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“Gratitude” was named the 2024 song of the year. Written by BMI songwriters Dante Bowe and Ben Hastings (APRA) and recorded by Brandon Lake, the song logged 28 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs. The track, featured on Lake’s album, House of Miracles, received nominations from the 2023 GMA Dove Awards for song of the year and worship recorded song of the year.
Essential Music Publishing took home the accolade for publisher of the year. Essential is 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 Loved,” “Same God,” “Thank God I Do,” “Then Christ Came,” “This Is Our God” and “Who I Am.”
In addition, the ceremony named 21 first-time winners for their role in writing the top 25 most-performed Christian songs of the previous year. They included pop powerhouses P!nk and Jeff Bhasker, who co-wrote the Lauren Daigle 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 Is Not My Future” and “Rest on Us”) and Jacob Mills and Levi Mills (“God Is Real” and “Never Not God”).
The complete winners list can be found here.
Wickham wasn’t the night’s only performer. Anne Wilson, 22, offered a stripped-down version of her hit, “Strong,” accompanied by BMI’s 2023 songwriter of the year, Jeff Pardo. Newcomer Charly Beathard made her BMI performance debut with “Hallelujah Anyway.”