ASCAP Pop Awards Honor ‘Stay’ as Song of the Year, Dr. Luke as Most Played Songwriter, Sony Music as Top Publisher

The ASCAP Pop Music Awards honored “Stay,” by the Kid Laroi featuring Justin Bieber, as the org’s pop music song of the year Thursday night. That number came out on top as the performing rights organization calculated the most-played affiliated songs of the past 12 months, with results for the 40th annual awards revealed at a private party held for members at Yamashiro in Hollywood.

The org’s interest in “Stay” is via ASCAP member Bieber, one of the co-writers on the smash. The song spent seven weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in mid-2022.

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Dr. Luke was named the songwriter of the year, largely for his participation in hits that have continued to do well off Doja Cat’s 2021 album “Planet Her,” primarily “Need to Know,” “Woman” and “You Right.” The success of Latto’s “High Energy” and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” also contributed to the producer-writer achieving the highest number of plays for the year.

Sony Music Publishing won the award for pop publisher of the year for the eighth time in an ongoing hot streak. Among the songs represented by the publisher that helped Sony rack up the honor were Beyonce’s “Break My Soul,” Em Beihold’s “Numb Little Bug,” Muni Long’s “Hrs and Hrs” and Post Malone and the Weeknd’s “One Right Now.”

The results are calculated from streaming and radio data provided by Luminate.

Also represented with song among the year’s most-played: Billy Walsh (“Die for You,” “I Like You,” “One Right Now”), Cardi B (“Wild Side”), Dua Lipa (“Sweetest Pie”), Fousheé (“Bad Habit”), Greg Kurstin (“Easy on Me”), Henry “Cirkut” Walter (“Die for You,” “Unholy”), Kim Petras (“Unholy”), Louis Bell (“I Like You,” “One Right Now”), Phil Plested (“I’m Good (Blue)”), Sarah Hudson (“Sweetest Pie”), Sia (“Unstoppable”), Starrah (“Wild Side”), Theron Thomas (“About Damn Time,” “Big Energy”) and Vaughn Oliver (“Big Energy,” “Super Freaky Girl”).

A complete list of winners can be found here.

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