BMI saluted the writers and publishers of the past year's most performed Christian songs during the BMI Christian Music Awards, which were held on Monday at the company's Music Row offices in Nashville, TN.

250 writers, artists, and executive were present as BMI Senior Vice President Phil Graham, Vice President Paul Corbin and Director Joyce Rice of BMI's Writer/Publisher Relations department presented BMI Citations of Achievement to 22 songs in five categories: AC (Adult Contemporary), CHR (Christian Hit Radio), Contemporary/Traditional Gospel, Rock and Southern Gospel.

Producer Jim Cooper and Building 429 front man/guitarist Jason Roy won the BMI Crystal for Most Performed Christian Song of the Year as writers of "Glory Defined," which was recorded by Building 429 on their debut album Space In Between Us (Word Records).

Adding yet another crown to his songwriting career, Casting Crowns lead singer Mark Hall earned the title of BMI Christian Songwriter of the Year by collecting four BMI Citations of Achievement for writing "If We Are the Body" and "Who Am I," each included in the AC and CHR categories. The Atlanta-area youth minister was also named Songwriter of the Year at the 2004 and 2005 Gospel Music Association Awards, with Casting Crowns chosen as the GMA's 2005 Group of the Year.

In addition to Roy and Cooper, songwriters collecting two Citations each were Aaron Sprinkle in the Rock category ("Rawkfist" and "Sea of Faces") and AC-CHR Marc Byrd ("God of Wonders"), Kenny Greenberg ("More") and Brendan Graham [IMRO] ("You Raise Me Up").

Other 2005 BMI award-winning songwriter/artists were rockers Pillar, John Cooper of Skillet, Michael Tait and Chad Chapin of Tait, and Thousand Foot Krutch; ubran stars Fred Hammond and Keith "Wonderboy" Johnson; and Southern Gospel voices Gerald Crabb, Wayne Haun, Annie McRae and Rodney Griffin of Greater Vision.

The ceremony also announced the Publisher of the Year, which was a four-way tie among Christian Taylor Music, Club Zoo Music, Inc., SWECS Music and Songs of Greater Vision. The award is determined by the highest percentage of copyright ownership in award songs.

Club Zoo Music, Inc. (owned by Franklin Miller and Sawyer Brown's Mark Miller) and SWECS Music (owned by three-time BMI Christian Songwriter of the Year Steven Curtis Chapman) collected the honor for publishing the Casting Crowns hits "If We Are the Body" and "Who Am I."

Christian Taylor Music (owned by Dottie Miller) garnered the accolade for "I Wish I Could Have Been There," "If It Had Not Been the Lord" and "Places To Go, People To See," and Songs of Greater Vision (owned by Greater Vision group members Rodney Griffin and Gerald Wolfe) were honored for "He Is To Me" and "Just Ask."

For a complete list of songs nominated at the 2005 BMI Christian Music Awards click here.

Now marking its 65th year in business, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works from around the world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents.

BMI's Citation of Achievement performance certificates are given annually in recognition of popularity in the field of popular music, as measured by feature broadcast performances on American radio and television; this year's Christian Music Awards eligibility period ran January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

Justin Camacho
justin@breathecast.com