The BMI Pop Awards popped off at the luxe Beverly Wilshire Hotel with stellar performances, bombastic boasts and a beating heart, largely provided by the night’s honoree, super-producer, artist and songwriter Mark Ronson, winner of the BMI Champion award.

The show honors the songwriters, publishers and administrators of the year’s most-performed songs in BMI’s catalogue. Apparently, it’s been a great year.

I’ve never seen a room of industry insiders so excited about the future.

CEO Micheal O’Neill opened the show with a rousing speech highlighting BMI’s record-breaking year in the world of digital music streaming. I’ve been covering events like this for a few years i.e. through some dark financial times for the music industry.

I’ve never seen a room of industry insiders so excited about the future. They riding high, y’all. I’m happy to see it.

There were some big winners this evening. BMI Pop Song of the year went to Johnny McDaid and Ed Sheeran for the inescapable, infectious “Shape of You,” which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart.

Justin Tranter aka my favorite pop songwriter won Songwriter of the Year for the second year in a row for co-writing four smash hit singles, including “Believer” by Imagine Dragons and “Issues” by Juliana Michaels.

Ronson was the star of the night. BMI put together a series of video tributes from the biggest names in music…history. Paul McCartney, while playing djembe, talked about how he and Ronson decided to work together while at a urinal. I need more than anything for that story to be true.

Quincy Jones showered praise on the star, praising Ronson for his bold, “YOLO” approach to songcraft.

“I don’t know how to do anything else – I don’t want to do anything else,” he said.

Ronson gave a warm-as-hell speech. He talked about how a friend of his was shocked that he’s still sending beats around like he was 20+ years ago trying to break into the music business.

“I don’t know how to do anything else – I don’t want to do anything else,” he said.

That love, that hunger for new talent and musical experiences was on full display during a musical tribute to Ronson, curated by the artist himself. He played guitar alongside protégé King Princess, an incredible, smoky-voiced young singer who has the best Instagram in existence.

He then brought up Yebba, who I know very well from extensive youtube binges of heart s.t.u.n.n.i.n.g. vocal performances. She did not disappoint. Mad people hit my DMs after I posted video of her singing. What more proof do you need?

This was a great night, encouraging. It felt like a family affair – a massive group of interconnected artists who love to push and encourage each other. This is how it should be.