\n\tWhen Taylor Swift is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at its annual awards gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on June\u00a011, she\u2019ll set a couple of records. At 36, she\u2019ll be the youngest woman ever ushered into the SHOF, which inducted its first class of songwriters in 1970. She\u2019ll also be the first person to graduate from winning the organization\u2019s Hal David Starlight Award (an accolade for a songwriter who shows promise, which Swift won in 2010) to full membership status.<\/p>\n
\n\tA songwriter with a notable catalog of songs qualifies for SHOF induction 20 years after his or her first commercial release of a song. Swift\u2019s first single, \u201cTim McGraw,\u201d arrived in June 2006, so she just made it this year.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis year\u2019s list of inductees includes three songwriters or songwriting teams who have won Grammy Awards for song of the year \u2014 Terry Britten and Graham Lyle (Tina Turner\u2019s \u201cWhat\u2019s Love Got To Do With It\u201d), Kenny Loggins (The Doobie Brothers\u2019 \u201cWhat a Fool Believes,\u201d a co-write with 2025 honoree Michael McDonald) and Christopher \u201cTricky\u201d Stewart (Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cSingle Ladies [Put a Ring on It],\u201d a co-write with Beyonc\u00e9, Terius \u201cThe-Dream\u201d Nash and Thaddis Harrell). Swift has yet to win a Grammy for song of the year, despite a record-tying eight nominations, which extend from \u201cYou Belong With Me\u201d (2010, just months before her aforementioned Hal David Starlight Award honor) to \u201cFortnight\u201d (2025).<\/p>\n
\n\tSwift won\u2019t be the only record-setter among this year\u2019s honorees. Check out who else will make history below.<\/p>\n
\tRAYE<\/p>\n
\n\tThis year\u2019s recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award will become the first British woman to pick up the honor \u2014 and the second Brit overall following Ed\u00a0Sheeran.<\/p>\n
\tJohn Fogerty<\/p>\n
\n\tThis year\u2019s recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award, the organization\u2019s top honor, will become the sixth Mercer recipient who first achieved prominence in a pop, rock or R&B group or duo. He follows Paul Simon, Smokey Robinson, Phil Collins, Van Morrison and Lionel Richie.<\/p>\n
\tAlanis Morissette<\/p>\n
\n\tMorissette will be the fourth SHOF inductee who won a Juno Award for songwriter of the year following her fellow Canadians Paul Anka, Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen. Morissette won in that Juno category in 1996 and 1997.<\/p>\n
\tWalter Afanasieff<\/p>\n
\n\tAfanasieff and Mariah Carey (who was inducted in 2022) are the only songwriters with two songs that have each logged 16 or more weeks at No.\u00a01 on the Billboard Hot\u00a0100<\/a>. They co-wrote \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You,\u201d which has topped the Hot\u00a0100 for a record 22 weeks, and \u201cOne Sweet Day,\u201d which led the chart in 1995-96 for a then-\u00adrecord 16 weeks. (The members of Boyz\u00a0II Men were also co-writers of the latter song.)<\/p>\n \tGene Simmons and Paul Stanley<\/p>\n \n\tSimmons and Stanley will be inducted six months after their band, KISS, was an honoree at the Kennedy Center Honors. \u201cRock and Roll All Night,\u201d their most famous co-write, was a Hot\u00a0100 hit twice in 1975 \u2014 in a studio version and a subsequent live recording.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tA version of this story appears in the May 30, 2026, issue of Billboard.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n