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The Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced the 26 nominees for induction at the June 12, 2025, awards gala in New York City. Songwriters are eligible 20 years after their first significant commercial release of a song. Members will vote for six winners — three songwriters and three performing songwriters — until midnight on the east coast on December 22, 2024. Who do you think deserves to enter the Song Hall?

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Walter Afanasieff

Key songs in the Afanasieff catalog include: “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” “Hero,” “License to Kill,” “Love Will Survive,” “One Sweet Day”

Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan

Key songs in the Barri/Sloan catalog include: “Secret Agent Man,” “Eve Of Destruction,” “Where Were You When I Needed You,” “You Baby,” “Can I Get to Know You”

Mike Chapman

Key songs in the Chapman catalog include: “The Best,” “Love Is a Battlefield,” “Ballroom Blitz,...

Janet Jackson, Eminem, N.W.A, George Clinton, Boy George, Sheryl Crow and Sonny Curtis — an original member of Buddy Holly’s Crickets who went on to compose the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (“Love Is All Around”) — are among the 2025 nominees announced Tuesday for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. See the full list below.

Eligible Hall of Fame voting members will have until midnight Et on December 22 to turn in ballots, with their choices of up to three nominees in each of the songwriter and performing songwriter categories. The winning nominees will be inducted at the 2025 Induction & Awards Gala in New York City.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating “the exceptional work and lives of composers and lyricists who make an indelible impact creating music around the world.” A songwriter with a catalog of notable songs qualifies for induction...

Eminem, N.W.A, Janet Jackson, and Alanis Morissette are among the finalists for the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s class of 2025.

Other nominees include Mike Love of The Beach Boys, Sheryl Crow, George Clinton, Boy George, The Doobie Brothers, Steve Winwood, Bryan Adams, Tommy James, and Walter Afanasieff. The full list of nominees can be found below.

A total of six inductees will be chosen: three from the songwriters category, and three from the performing songwriters category. They’ll be honored during a ceremony held in New York City in June 2025.

Artists become eligible for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame 20 years after their first significant commercial release of a song.

Last year’s Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees included R.E.M., Steely Dan, Timbaland, and Dean Pitchford. During the induction ceremony, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Bill Berry reunited for their first performance together in 15 years.

Slim Shady could be headed to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Eminem is one of several performing songwriters nominated for the prestigious honor, along with Janet Jackson, Alanis Morissette, N.W.A., Sheryl Crow, George Clinton, Bryan Adams, Mike Love, Boy George, Steve Winwood, Doobie Brothers, David Gates and Tommy James.

Non-performing songwriters who earned nominations include Walter Afanasieff, Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Narada Michael Walden, Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan, Mike Chapman, Tony Macaulay, Sonny Curtis, Tom Douglas, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Roger Nichols, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, Franne Golde and Ashley Gorley, who earned two nominations for best country song at the Grammys last week.

Eligible voting members will select their choices of up to three nominees in each of the songwriter and performing songwriter categories. The winners will be honored next year at the organization’s Induction & Awards Gala in New York City. A songwriter with a catalog...

Steely Dan, Blondie, Public Enemy, R.E.M, Timbaland and the man who wrote bubblegum classics “Build Me Up Buttercup” and “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” are among the nominees for the 2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Also included on the roster of nominees are, among others, Bread frontman David Gates, Tracy Chapman, the Guess Who’s Randy Bachman & Burton Cummings, Kenny Loggins, Heart and Roger Nichols, who composed the music for such Carpenters hits as “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays.”

See the complete list of nominees below.

According to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a songwriter with a notable catalog of songs qualifies for induction 20 years after the first significant commercial release of a song. Eligible voting members will have until midnight Et on December 27, 2023 to turn in ballots, with their choices of three nominees from a songwriter and three from performing songwriter categories.