Taylor Swift, Drake & More: Which Starlight Award Recipient Most Deserves a Spot in the Songwriters Hall of Fame? Vote!

The Songwriters Hall of Fame announced on Thursday (May 4) that Post Malone will receive the Hal David Starlight Award at its 2023 Induction and Awards Dinner, which is slated for Thursday, June 15, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.

According to the SHOF, Hal David Starlight Award recipients are “gifted young songwriters who are making a significant impact in the music industry with their original songs.” The award, named after the lyricist who is best known for the many classic hits he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach, was introduced in 2004. Rob Thomas was the first recipient.

None of the Starlight honorees have yet been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but many are expected to be as they become eligible. Songwriters become eligible 20 years after their first song gained wide exposure. Five early recipients of the Starlight Award – Thomas, Alicia Keys, John Mayer, John Rzeznik and Jason Mraz – are already eligible. (Mraz’s breakthrough hit first made the Billboard Hot 100 20 years ago this week.)

Most of the Starlight Award honorees are best known for their solo work, but a handful are also known for their work with groups – Thomas (Matchbox Twenty), Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls), Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons), Nate Ruess (Fun.) and Nick Jonas (Jonas Brothers).

One Starlight recipient, Benny Blanco, is best-known for songs he has written for other artists. Blanco didn’t hit the Hot 100 as an artist until 2018, when he scored with “Eastside,” a collab with Halsey (another Starlight recipient) and Khalid.

Three of the Starlight Award recipients — Keys, John Legend and Ruess (as a member of Fun.) won the Grammy Award for best new artist, which is a similar vote of confidence in a promising young talent.

The SHOF’s inner circle selects the nominees for each year’s induction class. The final choices are made by the Hall’s voting members. But you could give the SHOF a little guidance on which recipient of the Hal David Starlight Award you would most like to see voted in. Are you pulling for Keys, who was the first woman to receive the honor? Legend, who went on to become an EGOT? Drake, the first hip-hop artist/writer to be honored? Ed Sheeran, the only Brit to receive the honor? Taylor Swift, who was mostly known as a country artist when she got the honor in 2010, but has since made a spectacular transition to pop?

Here’s a complete list of winners of the Hal David Starlight Award (with the year they received the honor). Who do you think is most deserving of a spot in the Songwriters Hall of Fame? Vote!