passed away<\/a> just over a year ago. The audience responded with tremendous applause and a standing ovation.<\/p>\n\n\tThe platinum anthem honor, which recognizes the highest-certified song of the year, went to \u201cBeautiful Crazy,\u201d written by Luke Combs, Rob Williford and Wyatt Durrette, and recorded by Combs. The song earned 15x Platinum certification in December 2025. Brett Young honored the writers by putting his own soulful spin on a performance of \u201cBeautiful Crazy,\u201d while songwriter Williford took the stage to accept the honor.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think about that kid that just dreamed about hearing a song he wrote on the radio,\u201d Williford said. \u201cI thought, \u2018Man, if I can just accomplish that, if I got a No. 1, or if I won song of the year, I will have made it. I\u2019m here to tell you, I\u2019m here 10 years later, and I\u2019m just as hungry, just as fired up, I\u2019m still trying to chase this passion of pulling lyric and melody out of thin air.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCharlie Handsome was celebrated as top songwriter of the year. It was noted that he earned 35 new RIAA certifications over the last year, in the country genre alone. Among his certified songs being honored were \u201cWasted on You,\u201d \u201cLast Night,\u201d \u201cYou Proof\u201d and \u201cHeartless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThanks everybody who helped,\u201d Handsome told the crowd. \u201cI want to thank my family \u2013 my mom\u2019s here, my brother, my wife. All the guys I write with\u2026 it\u2019s the\u00a0same crew every time but without them I\u2019m not here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tVince Gill was honored with the legacy songwriter icon award, for his work in writing lasting impactful hits. His songs \u201cOne More Last Chance\u201d and \u201cGo Rest High on That Mountain\u201d received new certifications.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHis awards are countless, his talent is extraordinary, his humility is legendary,\u201d Israelite told the audience. \u201cBut perhaps his greatest achievement is that, after all these years, his songs aren\u2019t just standing the test of time \u2014 they are making history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI love writing songs, always have,\u201d Gill told the audience. \u201cIt kind of came last, the songs did\u2026I was always known for my singing, always known for my guitar playing, stuff like that\u2026 took a while for people to believe I was a decent songwriter. I sure was grateful for that change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGill then shared the often-told story of how the late Country Music Hall of Famer George Jones once drove a riding lawn mower several miles to purchase alcohol, after his wife had hidden his car keys to prevent him from drinking; that tale helped inspire Gill\u2019s 1992 song \u201cOne More Last Chance,\u201d which he performed during the NMPA gala. Gill then also offered up perhaps the evening\u2019s most moving moment, a version of his song \u201cGo Rest High on That Mountain,\u201d a song he said he wrote for his older brother.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m grateful for this song and what it has gone on to do to help people get through a rough stretch,\u201d Gill said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Music Publishers\u2019 Association celebrated an array of top country songs and the writers who created them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[10546,88,64964,216,498,283170],"class_list":["post-892460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-awards","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-country","tag-music","tag-music-news","tag-nmpa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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