Chappell Roan, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to Be Honored at 5th Annual SONA Warrior Awards

Grammy-winning artists Chappell Roan, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, LaPolt Law founder/owner and SONA co-founder Dina Lapolt, Primary Wave founder/CEO Larry Mestel and the organization Girls Make Beats will be honored at the Songwriters of North America’s fifth annual Warrior Awards, to be held Oct. 12 at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center.

Songwriters Bonnie McKee and Shane Stevens will host and perform, with singer/songwriter Morgan Wade and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Desmond Child also performing.

SONA’s board of directors selects the honorees. “Our board is out in the world seeing the good things that people are doing and so at the beginning of the year, we pool our ideas of who’s doing good work,” says SONA co-founder and CEO and Emmy-winning songwriter Michelle Lewis, adding that the board likes to pick honorees from across sectors, including artists, executives and organizations. “We look at what’s important at the time in terms of issues and advocacy and who is using their platform to make things better for songwriters and music creators. We’re honoring the do-gooders.”

Roan’s outspoken comments advocating for insurance for music creators at this year’s Grammys sparked a chord with SONA. “When she gave that speech, my phone blew up,” Lewis says. “We’ve been trying to deal with getting songwriters health insurance for as long as we’ve been around.”

New at the ceremony this year will be the Emerging Songwriter Warrior Award presented by YouTube Songwriter, which celebrates a SONA member on the rise. SONA members may nominate potential honorees for the award here through Aug. 22. The winner will be announced at the awards show from the five finalists.  

SONA, which advocates for songwriters’ and composers’ rights, as well as provides education and opportunities for its roughly 1,000 paid members, was founded 10 years ago. It represents songwriters’ interests before legislative bodies, administrative agencies and courts and provides a unified voice to protect songwriters’ rights and compensation. The organization is based in Los Angeles but expanded to add a New York chapter last year.

The awards will serve as the finale to the second annual SONA Warrior Awards week, which will include a number of activities, including include a wellness fest, hosted by the SONA Foundation, the organization’s philanthropic arm.

Other events include an intimate Oct. 7 house concert at a songwriter’s home, which will benefit the SONA Foundation’s Therapy Access Project. On Oct. 10, SONA will host its annual Songwriters Summit, which takes place at a major recording studio and serves as a state of the union for the songwriting community with panels and sessions on current issues. Following the Summit, the Hotel Café will host The Arena Rock Coffee House, which will feature the songs of Child, who has written numerous hits for Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Cher and more.  “Desmond’s going to be there and it’s going to be star-studded,” Lewis says. All the proceeds from the concert, which is open to the public, go to the SONA Foundation.

Lewis says the inspiration for SONA Warrior Awards week is the Ivor Novello Awards in the U.K.  “We don’t have that here: by songwriters for songwriters celebration day and week,” she says. “They are completely the inspiration for adding the [Emerging Songwriter] award and the week of programming.”