Sam Smith wins top BMI Awards

Sam Smith, singer Sam Smith, BMI awards

Sam Smith’s amazing year has continued with the song of the year prize at the 2015 BMI London Awards. (Source: Reuters)

Sam Smith’s amazing year has continued with the song of the year prize at the 2015 BMI London Awards.

The 23-year-old picked up the prestigious Robert S Musel award for “Stay With Me” at a Dorchester Hotel gala last evening beating off stiff competition from Ed Sheeran and Hozier.

The honour is given to the most-performed song of the previous year by UK or European writers in the BMI catalogue on US radio and television.

Smith also swept the night’s Pop Awards with gongs for “Stay With Me”, “I’m Not The Only One”, “Latch” and his contribution to “La La La”.

John Newman was also a big winner, claiming the Pop Awards for “Love Me Again” and “Blame”.

There were also wins for Graham Gouldman (BMI Icon), Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (BMI Million-Air Award) and the Bee Gees, Sting and Des’ree for the songs “Islands In The Stream”, “Roxanne” and “You Gotta Be”, respectively.

Smith’s big night comes days after the singer smashed the record for the most consecutive weeks in the UK albums top 10 chart for a debut.

Earlier this month, he became the first singer to achieve a number one with a James Bond theme tune for “Writing’s on the Wall”. Both feats have been recognised by the Guinness World Records.