That Eric Alper

BMI today announced that Fraser T. Smith will be presented with the BMI President’s Award at the 2025 BMI London Awards held on 29 September at The Dorchester. The multi-award-winning producer, songwriter and musician will be honoured for the remarkable breadth of his career-defining work and collaborations with some of the biggest artists in the world, such as Adele, Drake, Sam Smith, Snow Patrol and more. The private event will be hosted by BMI President & CEO Mike O’Neill and EVP, Chief Revenue & Creative Officer Mike Steinberg.

The ceremony also pays tribute to the British and European songwriters and publishers of the previous year’s most-performed songs on US streaming, radio, film, television and visual media from BMI’s repertoire of over 22.4 million musical works. The BMI London Song of the Year, Million-Air Awards, and awards for Pop, Film, Television and Cable Television Music will also be presented throughout the evening.
“Fraser T. Smith is widely recognized as one of the UK’s most influential and sought-after producers and songwriters, whose musical contributions and ability to span genres created some of the most impactful songs of our generation,” said O’Neill. “We’re thrilled to commemorate his illustrious career as an acclaimed collaborator and a solo artist with the BMI President’s Award. We’re also excited to celebrate our BMI family of award-winning songwriters and composers and recognize their musical achievements over the last year.”

Smith has spent much of his career spanning over three decades, producing and songwriting for some of the most prominent artists in the world, including Adele, Craig David, Drake, Florence and the Machine, Gorillaz, Kano, Stormzy, Sam Smith, Snow Patrol and many more. Before becoming one of the UK’s most in-demand creators of contemporary music, Smith was a session guitarist in the 1990s, performing on more than 200 records. In 1999, he met a then-unknown Craig David, and was his guitarist for five years before collaborating on three of David’s albums, Born to Do It, Slicker Than Your Average and Trust Me.

Over the years, Smith has co-written, mixed and produced seven No. 1 singles in the UK, two Billboard No. 1 singles in the US, contributed to 18 No. 1 albums, and has received multiple awards, accolades, and praise from his peers and the media alike. In 2011, Fraser won a GRAMMY for his work on Adele’s massively successful album 21 and received his first Ivor Novello nomination for “Broken Strings” by James Morrison the following year. In 2015, Fraser received a GRAMMY nomination for his contributions to Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour and was honored with a Latin GRAMMY for his collaboration with Mexican duo Jesse & Joy on Un Besito Más. Smith was shortlisted for the 2016 Mercury Prize, nominated for a 2017 Brit Award, and won Best Album at the MOBO Awards for his work on Kano’s album, Made in the Manor, and was also honored for Stormzy’s Brit and Ivor Novello-winning debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer. Most recently, he produced Snow Patrol’s album, The Forest Is The Path, the band’s first No. 1 album in 18 years, and produced Kae Tempest’s critically acclaimed 2025 album, Self-Titled.

Smith has received critical acclaim as a solo artist as well. His 2020 debut, 12 Questions, was recorded under the moniker Future Utopia and featured an incredible roster of artists, including Stormzy, Dave, Kano, Ghetts, Bastille, Es Devlin, Simon Armitage and Idris Elba. Returning earlier this year, Future Utopia released two brand new singles in 2025, kicking the year off with the hypnotic disco-inspired “Don’t Try This At Home” and teamed up with Lava La Rue on the mesmeric psyche banger “The Pleasure Trap.” Smith won an Ivor Novello Award in 2021 for his collaboration with Dave on one of the album’s singles, “Children of the Internet,” marking the second Ivor for the pair, with the first in 2018 for Dave’s “Question Time.”

As a BMI President’s Award honouree, Smith joins an elite group of previous recipients including benny blanco, Luis Fonsi, Noel Gallagher, Ellie Goulding, Imagine Dragons, Jay Kay of Jamiroquai, Ludacris, P!nk, Willie Nelson, Pitbull, T-Pain, Taylor Swift, Brian Wilson, and Dwight Yoakam, to name a few.