Gibson, Mcgraw, Bna Win Big At American Songwriter Ceremony

NASHVILLE-Susan Gibson was named country songwriter of the year by American Songwriter magazine for the Dixie Chicks hit "Wide Open Spaces." "Amazed," co-written by Marv Green, Aimee Mayo, and Chris Lindsey, was the country song of the year.
Additional country music winners were Tim McGraw, artist of the year; Hamstein Music Group, publisher of the year; Dann Huff, producer of the year; and BNA, label of the year.
R. Kelly was named songwriter of the year in the ceremony held Jan. 27 in BMI's Nashville office, marking the magazine's 11th annual awards presentation. This was Kelly's second win, duplicating his 1994 honor.
The award was for "Fortunate," which was at the top of the R&B charts for eight weeks, and "I'm Your Angel," at the top of the pop charts for six weeks.
Kelly was also named producer of the year, R&B songwriter of the year, and pop songwriter of the year. "Nobody's Supposed To Be Here," written by Shep Crawford and Montell Jordan, was the magazine's song of the year as well as R&B song of the year.
EMI April was awarded publisher of the year. Deborah Cox received artist of the year accolades, and Arista was the record label of the year.
Steven Curtis Chapman was named Christian songwriter of the year, and his song "Speechless," co-written with Geoff Moore, was named Christian song of the year. Other Christian award winners were Sparrow, publisher of the year and label of the year; Brown Bannister, producer of the year; and Avalon, artist of the year.
Pop category winners, in addition to Kelly's songwriter of the year honors, were "I'm Your Angel," written by R. Kelly, song of the year; EMI April, publisher of the year; Rodney Jerkins, producer of the year; Monica, artist of the year; and Arista, label of the year.
In the R&B category, "Nobody's Supposed To Be Here" was song of the year, Famous Music and Wixen Music tied for publisher of the year, She'kspere was producer of the year, Deborah Cox was artist of the year, and Arista was label of the year.
Winners were chosen by monitoring and computing the songs reaching No. 1 on the pop, country, and R&B charts in Billboard magazine, and on the Christian music charts in CCM Update, from the period Sept. 20, 1998, to Sept. 4, 1999.
In addition to the American Songwriter Professional Awards, the magazine also presented its lyric winner of the year honors to Randy Moomaw of Nashville, whose winning lyric was "In 1963."