Niko Moon, Lee Brice Win At SESAC 2021 Nashville Music Awards

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Pictured (L-R): SESAC’s Lydia Schultz, Lee Brice, SESAC’s Shannan Hatch

SESAC has revealed the winners for the 2021 Nashville Music Awards, which took place in a digital format. The winners were celebrated on SESAC’s website and social platforms.

Niko Moon was named SESAC’s Songwriter of the Year for the first time. Moon’s career includes several hit songs recorded by Zac Brown Band, including “Homegrown,” “Beautiful Drug,” “Keep Me in Mind,” and “Loving You Easy,” as well as the Rascal Flatts hit “Back To Life.” This year he earned his first No. 1 hit as an artist with “Good Time,” and also co-wrote the chart-topper “Gone,” recorded by Dierks Bentley.

SESAC writer Lee Brice‘s seventh career No. 1, “One Of Them Girls,” was named Song of the Year. The tune swept the Nashville PRO awards this year, winning Song of the Year honors at the SESAC, BMI and ASCAP Nashville awards. “One of Them Girls” was certified double-Platinum by the RIAA in August of this year. It spent three weeks at the No. 1 position on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and has remained in the Top 10 each recurrent week. Additionally, the song has over 390 million on-demand streams to date.

Warner Chappell Music took home the Publisher of the Year accolade, after most recently winning the award in 2019. The publishing company also won the BMI Publisher of the Year honor this year, in a tie with Sony Music Publishing.

Pictured (L-R): SESAC’s Shannan Hatch and Scott Jungmichel, 2021 Songwriter of the Year Niko Moon, SESAC’s ET Brown and Lydia Schultz

Additionally, Walker Hayes’ 16-week No. 1, viral hit “Fancy Like,” written by affiliate Josh Jenkins and published by SMACK Songs and Kobalt, was awarded a new honor, Sync Song of the Year.

“Songwriting and music publishing are at the very core of the music business, and we at SESAC love that we get to honor those contributions,” says Scott Jungmichel, President and COO, SESAC PRO. “We are happy to celebrate our top performed songs over the past year.”

“We are very proud of the songs we awarded this year,” adds Shannan Hatch, Vice President of Creative Services. “Our Nashville creative team worked hard to come up with creative, cozy, and safe gatherings to celebrate the successes of our SESAC songwriter and publisher family who won awards. We all look forward to the future when we can safely celebrate with everyone in person.”

For a complete list of SESAC 2021 Nashville Music Award winners and to see special messages from SESAC Country and Americana honorees, click here.

LB Cantrell
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