Johnny McDaid receives BMI President's Award at London ceremony

Songwriter, producer and musician Johnny McDaid received the BMI President's Award at the 2026 BMI London Awards on Monday, September 28.

The private ceremony took place at The Dorchester in London. It was hosted by BMI chief executive Mike O'Neill and Mike Steinberg, the organisation's executive vice-president and chief revenue and creative officer, Music Business Worldwide reported.

McDaid did not leave with one prize. He collected two BMI Million-Air Awards on the night, honours that count how many times a song has been performed on US radio and television. The thresholds are high.

Shape of You passed 8 million US performances. Bad Habits passed 6 million US performances. Both songs were co-written by McDaid with Ed Sheeran.

That is a lot of airplay. Eight million performances means a song has lived on daytime radio, late-night television, restaurant speakers and all the other places licensed music plays, for years after its release.

McDaid was also recognised for co-writing Azizam. BMI credits him with 18 BMI Awards in total across his career as a writer and producer.

He has a record at this particular event. Shape of You brought him BMI Pop and London Song of the Year in 2018. Bad Habits then took BMI London Song of the Year in 2022.

What makes this stand out is the span. The new Million-Air figures put older co-writes alongside a current writing credit in the same night, with the President's Award sitting above them as the evening's personal honour.

Elsewhere at the 2026 event, "luther" was named BMI London Song of the Year, according to BMI. The listing confirms the top song prize went elsewhere while McDaid took the President's Award.