Credit: Michael HullVeteran hit songwriter Desmond Child will be presented with the prestigious ASCAP Founders Award at the performance-rights organization’s 2018 Pop Music Awards, which will be held April 23 in Los Angeles. The honor is given to songwriters who have made noteworthy contributions to the music industry by inspiring and influencing other artists to create music.
Child, a 2008 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, has co-written an impressive list of hit songs for a wide variety of artists, including Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, KISS, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Alice Cooper and Ricky Martin. His compositions include Aerosmith’s “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “What It Takes” and “Crazy”; Bon Jovi’s smashes “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Bad Medicine”; KISS’ “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”; Jett & the Blackhearts’ “I Hate Myself for Loving You”; Cooper’s “Poison”; and Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca” and “She Bangs.”
“Desmond is one of the most respected and successful songwriters in the world,” says ASCAP President Paul Williams. “His unique ability to capture the essence of our lives through song — whether we’re livin’ la vida loca or livin’ on a prayer — is simply unequaled.”
Child also found some success with his own group, Desmond Child and Rouge, and he currently serves as the chairman and CEO of the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Previous Founders Award recipients include such notable artists as Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Rod Stewart, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Neil Young, Heart‘s Ann & Nancy Wilson, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler & Joe Perry, Tom Petty, Patti Smith, John Mellencamp and KISS.
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