24NY Honors Gala

THE T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION 49TH ANNUAL NEW YORK HONORS GALA

TO CELEBRATE BIG LOUD PARTNER / CEO SETH ENGLAND WITH LIFETIME MUSIC INDUSTRY AWARD

ON TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 17 AT CIPRIANI 42ND STREET IN NEW YORK CITY

*Special writers' round performance by Morgan Wallen, HARDY, and ERNEST*

New York, New York  -  August 19, 2024 - The T.J. Martell Foundation, the music industry's leading foundation that provides funds for innovative cancer research, is thrilled to announce the honoree and performance lineup for the 49th Annual New York Honors Gala, which will take place in New York City and be held at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday September 17, 2024.  Esteemed music industry leader and Partner / CEO of Big Loud, Seth England, will be honored this year with the prestigious Lifetime Music Industry Award. The elegant evening is the Foundation's primary fundraiser of the year, supporting its mission of curing cancer by funding high-risk, high-reward research that could lead to trailblazing advancements in early detection, screening, and treatments. The award will pay tribute to England's exceptional impact on the music industry as well as his unwavering support for the T.J. Martell Foundation's mission and dedication to finding a cure for cancer. 

"We are thrilled to be honoring our distinguished music industry colleague and dear friend Seth England with this year's Lifetime Music Industry Award to commemorate his deep commitment to the foundation," said Steve Gawley, REPUBLIC Corps. Executive Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs and Business Development and Chairman-Elect of the Board of Trustees, T.J. Martell Foundation.   "We are proud to shine a spotlight on Seth's dedicated efforts towards our cancer research as well as his pioneering work in the music world, and look forward to celebrating Seth and his achievements with an exhilarating night of music!" 

The evening's program will include a fundraising auction and writers' round performance by three Big Loud artists shaping the country genre today: All-genre juggernaut and 11-time Billboard Music Award-winning superstar Morgan Wallen, ACM award-winning, country / rock trailblazer HARDY, and critically acclaimed Nashville hitmaker and country singer-songwriter ERNEST. Archie Davis, Def Jam's Chief Creative Officer / EVP who received the New York Honors Gala Rising Music Superstar Award in 2023, will announce an initiative that will continue to raise awareness of early screening and testing. 

 "As a longstanding proud member of the music industry, I am grateful to see the unwavering dedication and generosity that our music peers put forth to help propel this vital cancer research," said John Esposito, Chairman of Board of Trustees, T.J. Martell Foundation.  "As we look ahead towards what will be the foundation's 50th anniversary, this year's gala is a great reminder of how far we have come as a foundation and how much further we still need to go in the fight against cancer."

"We are incredibly thankful to the music community for uniting to support the foundation's critical work in funding cancer research," said Lynn-Anne Huck, CEO, T.J. Martell Foundation.  "Witnessing our donors rally around the fight against cancer and uphold the promise made between a father and his son is both beautiful and inspiring." 

Honoree Seth England is an innovative music executive whose tenacious approach has changed and challenged industry standards for over 20 years. From working as an intern at Big Loud and pulling weeds outside of the building to becoming the company's CEO and a partner in the business, England continues to prove that different is better, and that outside the box is the Big Loud way. The 2024 Billboard Country Power Players Executive of the Year and the inaugural recipient of Billboard's Country Power Players Choice Award - a peer-voted accolade given to the country music executive that industry power players think made the most impact genre-wide in one year -  helms Big Loud's multi-faceted business - Records, Publishing, Management, and Capital - and has helped guide it to unprecedented heights. 

To date, Records counts over 100 RIAA certified titles, 28 U.S. No. 1 country radio hits-and-counting, and more than 47 billion global streams across its roster of unparalleled talent, including Morgan Wallen, Lauren Alaina, HARDY, ERNEST, Charles Wesley Godwin, MacKenzie Porter, Larry Fleet, Stephen Wilson Jr., Dallas Smith, Griffen Palmer, Shawn Austin, Lily Rose, Jake Worthington, Ashley Cooke, Lauren Watkins, Dylan Gossett, Kashus Culpepper, and Zandi Holup. To date, the Big Loud Publishing roster has penned over 300 singles including three GRAMMY Award winners (Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying," Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" and "Blown Away"), and 90 No.1 hits in its 21 years of business for artists like George Strait, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Florida Georgia Line, Faith Hill, Thomas Rhett, and more. Big Loud Management launched with Florida Georgia Line as its first client in 2011 and hasn't looked back, implementing a game-changing hybrid model and quickly growing in capacity, representing a range of breakout talent and multi-platinum chart-toppers over its 12+ year history.

England is an active member of The Recording Academy, CMA, and ACM, and has been recognized for his successes by industry peers as a Variety Hitmaker and on several of Billboard's industry-wide lists like the Power 100, Indie Power Players, Country Power Players, 40 Under 40, and more. With a desire to absorb and create trends on a macro level, England remains a student of the industry while playing a pivotal role in shaping its future.

ABOUT MORGAN WALLEN
When 11-time 2023 Billboard Music Awards-winner and Top Male Artist Morgan Wallen released his third studio album One Thing At A Time in 2023, its instant success left The New York Times proclaiming Wallen as "one of the biggest stars in pop, period." One Thing At A Time has remained atop the all-genre Billboard 200 chart for 19 non-consecutive weeks, surpassing Garth Brooks' Ropin' the Wind with the most weeks at No. 1 for a country album, and was the most-streamed album of the year on Spotify. The album's 6X-Platinum single "Last Night" reeled in over 1.5 billion streams globally, becoming the most-streamed song of any genre in the U.S. across Apple Music and Spotify, and the longest running No. 1 solo song in Hot 100 history (16 weeks total). Recent collab with Post Malone, "I Had Some Help," debuted at country radio with 167 first week adds, becoming only the second single in chart history to debut with the support of all reporting stations, opening at No. 15 on the Mediabase charts. Since its release, "I Had Some Help" has remained No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 all-genre charts for six weeks, becoming the longest-running No. 1 of 2024.
 
With 14 chart-toppers at country radio, Wallen played for five countries / three continents in 2023 for his One Night At A Time World Tour stadium tour. Performing to over 2.4 million fans, One Night At A Time was named a Pollstar and Billboard Country Tour of the Year, surpassing attendance records in numerous stops; including Ohio Stadium, where Wallen became the largest weekend ever for the venue. The 36-show 2024 extension of One Night At A Time takes Wallen to 24 additional stadium-plays, and will include Wallen's first European run with seven shows this fall. Wallen donates a portion from every ticket sold to his Morgan Wallen Foundation.

 ABOUT HARDY

Big Loud Records/Big Loud Rock heavy hitter HARDY-crowned "Nashville's nü-metal king" by the Los Angeles Times-continues to soar with the release of his highly anticipated new album QUIT!!. Out now to critical acclaim, the album adds to HARDY's nearly five billion career streams, with singles taking over radio charts across rock and country. HARDY's first full rock LP follows 2023's half-country, half-rock sophomore album the mockingbird & THE CROW, which debuted top five all-genre on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and topped seven additional Billboard charts in its first week, including Top Country Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Album Sales.

The pride of Philadelphia, Mississippi has earned his reputation as "a promising purveyor of keeping the spirit of classic heavy Southern rock alive" (American Songwriter), "capable of writing the big hits for radio, obstinate enough to do something completely unexpected, and savvy enough to find the throughline for it all" (Rolling Stone). A five-time ACM award winner and two-time CMA award winner, HARDY has also won three CMA Triple Play awards, was named the 2022 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year and is a three-time AIMP Songwriter of the Year. HARDY has written 16 #1 singles including his own two-times Platinum chart topper "ONE BEER" featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson, the platinum Dierks Bentley and BRELAND collaboration "Beers On Me," game-changing two-times Platinum duet "wait in the truck" feat. Lainey Wilson and first-ever rock radio #1 "JACK." He's previously toured with Thomas Rhett, Morgan Wallen, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Cole Swindell and more.

ABOUT ERNEST

Nashville's most unpredictable hitmaker ERNEST is "The Charmer" (MusicRow): a triple threat talent who "creates a sound all his own" (Pollstar) and one of Music City's defining artist-writers who continues to push and challenge the artistic status quo. The 2X ACM Award nominee (2024), 2X CMA Triple Play Award winner, and 2022 / 2023 Variety Hitmaker fuses influences ranging from Eminem to George Jones, crafting a twist-heavy verse style that's become his signature, proving its mettle, and earning him eleven No. 1 hits as a songwriter and one No. 1 at country radio himself. The eccentric free spirit just released his highly anticipated full-length sophomore album, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, a set that "maintain(s) Nashville's tethering to its legendary history while wholly embracing the soul of the city's future" (The Tennessean), featuring 26 new songs and collaborations with genre tastemakers Lainey Wilson, Lukas Nelson, Jelly Roll, HARDY, and more. The album has been shortlisted as one of the Best of the Year So Far by Billboard, The Tennessean, and Country Now, following in the footsteps of its critically acclaimed predecessor, FLOWER SHOPS (THE ALBUM), and its cleverly-expanded deluxe edition, FLOWER SHOPS (THE ALBUM): Two Dozen Roses, which added a baker's dozen of fresh cuts to the bunch. ERNEST headlines this fall on The Legalize Country Music Roadshow before opening arenas for Jelly Roll through the end of the year.

For media inquiries: Aliza Rabinoff/DKC: [email protected] | Don Hoffman/DKC: [email protected]

ABOUT THE NEW YORK HONORS GALA

On Tuesday, September 17, 2024, the 49th Annual New York Honors Gala will be held at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York, where Seth England, CEO/Partner of Big Loud, will receive the Lifetime Music Industry Award, along with a special writers' round performance by Morgan Wallen, HARDY, and ERNEST.

The New York Honors Gala has become one of the premier events in the music industry since it began nearly fifty years ago. Over 600 influential and well-regarded entertainment industry leaders and A-list talent attend the event. The event will take place at Cipriani 42 in New York, beginning with a cocktail reception, dinner, auction, honoree presentations, and musical performances. Each year, the Foundation holds this invite-only event as a primary fundraiser to support its mission to fund innovative medical research to find a cure for cancer.

BUSINESS ATTIRE

ABOUT THE T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION

The T.J. Martell Foundation is leading the music community's fight to end cancer through the funding of high-risk, high reward research.

From pioneering medications to advanced technologies for tumor tracking to cutting-edge analysis of genetic and microbiome data, our grants are saving lives through advancements in cancer screening, early detection, and treatment. For nearly five decades, we have championed the trailblazing research of diligent scientists and doctors who are committed to finding a cure.

What started as a promise between a father and a son who he tragically lost to cancer, we honor the belief that the bond we all share with music can be used to strengthen the bond between a family, between a patient and a doctor and between a scientist and their research.

Visit www.tjmartell.org for more information.