Sheryl Crow to Receive BMI's 2026 Troubadour Award in Nashville
Sheryl Crow will receive the 2026 Troubadour Award from BMI, the performing rights organisation that collects royalties for songwriters when their music is played publicly, at a private event on 14 September at BMI's Nashville office.
The award, announced by BMI, recognises a songwriter who has made a profound impact on the American music landscape and whose work continues to set the pace for generations to follow Billboard. The ceremony will feature performances and tributes highlighting Crow's career.
Crow's relationship with BMI stretches back to 1991, when she first affiliated with the organisation. She was named BMI Pop Songwriter of the Year in 1997 and has collected 12 BMI Awards across her career, for songs including "All I Wanna Do," "Strong Enough," "Soak Up the Sun" and "Picture." She has also received eight BMI Million-Air awards, which recognise songs that have surpassed specific thresholds of radio airplay, for tracks including "Everyday Is a Winding Road," "A Change Would Do You Good" and "My Favorite Mistake."
The Troubadour Award places her in select company. Previous recipients include John Fogerty, Billy F Gibbons, John Hiatt, Robert Earl Keen, John Oates, John Prine and Lucinda Williams.
Crow's broader honours stack high. She is a nine-time Grammy winner with 32 nominations to her name, including song of the year for "All I Wanna Do," best song written for visual media for "Tomorrow Never Dies," and best American roots song for "Forever." She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023 on her first nomination.
Her chart history is equally striking. Between 1996 and 2005, Crow landed seven No. 1 hits on Billboard's Adult Alternative Airplay chart, the most by a female artist on that chart. Those singles were "If It Makes You Happy," "A Change Would Do You Good," "Anything But Down," "My Favorite Mistake," "Soak Up the Sun," "The First Cut Is the Deepest" and "Good Is Good."
Clay Bradley, BMI's vice president of creative for Nashville, oversees the organisation's songwriter and publisher relationships in that market. The September event will be held behind closed doors rather than as a public ceremony.
For a songwriter who built a career on hooks that crossed from alternative radio to pop to country-adjacent territory, the Troubadour Award is BMI's way of saying the catalogue has earned its place on the shelf beside some of American songwriting's most durable names.
