Beyonce Knowles, Dido, Strokes, James Taylor, & Tony Bennett Honored By ASCAP

LOS ANGELES (ASCAP) - Veteran and new songwriters earned key honors at the 19th Annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards Monday (May 20) night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

As previously announced, James Taylor was bestowed with the ASCAP Founders Award and Tony Bennett was given the ASCAP Pied Piper Award. The night's other big honors went to Destiny's Child's Beyonce Knowles, who was named Songwriter of the Year; Dido, whose "Thank You" was this past year's Song of the Year; the Strokes, which earned the ASCAP College Vanguard Award; songwriter Holly Lamar for writing the Faith Hill hit "Breathe; and Warner/Chappell for Publisher of the Year.

Richard Marx opened the show with a piano performance of his award-winning song "This I Promise You," which was a hit for 'NSync last year. Other performances included Bennett's short set of hits, including "The Best Is Yet to Come," "How Do You Keep the Music Playing," and "Keep the Faith, Baby," which he performed with k.d. lang. Taylor performed "Something in the Way She Moves Me," while Shawn Colvin did a rendition of Taylor's "I Was a Fool to Care."

"This I Promise You" and "Thank You" were two of the top five songs honored for being the most performed songs from Oct. 1, 2000 through Sept. 30, 2001. Rounding out the top five were Lenny Kravitz's "Again," Train's "Drops of Jupiter," and Uncle Kracker's "Follow Me" (written by Michael Bradford).

Among the dozens of other songs honored were Aerosmith's "Jaded," Marc Anthony's "You Sang to Me" and "I Need to Know," Crazy Town's "Butterfly" (see related story in Miss Truth), Savage Garden's "I Knew I Loved You," Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera's "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely," and Destiny's Child's "Independent Women Part I," "Jumpin' Jumpin'," and "Survivor."