Last Night, BMI hosted their annual Urban Music Awards at Jazz At Lincoln Center in the Time Warner Building overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park South.

The evening started out with a pre-awards event that included live performances by the likes of Keri Hilson and Mario, and a buffet of delicious things sponsored by Coca Cola and Hennessey.

Once inside the show, the president of BMI kicked off the festivities including a celebration of Michael Jackson’s contribution to music publishing and a standing ovation from the crowd.  What followed was a series of awards for talent who have contributed this past year to R&B and Hip-Hop music, namely songwriters, producers and publishers.  Interestingly enough, the controversial Chris Brown was accredited to many of the year’s top songs, but was noticeably unable to attend the event to accept.

The final “big” awards of the evening went to:

Producer of The Year: A tie between Kanye West and Polow Da Don

Publisher of The Year: Universal Music

Songwriter of The Year: A tie between Lil Wayne and T-Pain

Song of The Year: “No Air” by Erik Griggs (performed by Chris Brown and Jordin Sparks)

The ceremony wrapped up with a tribute to the creator of “funk”, Mr. George Clinton.  What ensued was a melody of the music inspired by or created by George,  and performed by several acts including: Cee-lo, Bootsy, Big Boi of Outkast and Janelle Monae.  I was totally into Big Boi’s ‘tin man’ looking armour outfit, and Janelle has an unbelievable stage presence and appears to be a triple threat: singer / dancer / and undeniable beauty. I plan to keep an eye on her.

Though cameras were prohibited, I snapped a few low res pictures on my blackberry:

*Keri Hilson performing at the Pre-Party

*The Stage: Waiting for the Show to start

*George Clinton performing / accepting on stage with his peers

Thanks to the co-founders of Blazetrak.com for my ticket!  And to Polow Da Don for the flattering kiss on my hand that topped off the night.

[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]

Tags: Big Boi, BMI, BMI Urban Music Awards, Chris Brown, Erik Griggs, George Clinton, Janelle Monae, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jordin Sparks, Kanye West, Keri Hilson, Lil Wayne, Polow Da Don, T-Pain, Universal Music, Urban Music, Urban Music Awards

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 7:17 pm and is filed under celeb-tastic, people to watch, person(aly)ty, special events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.