Taylor Swift collects special award for song-writing

Updated

Taylor Swift said her passion for song-writing "interrupted her daily life" as she was recognised with an award named in her honour.

The 26-year-old US superstar collected the Taylor Swift Award at the Broadcast Music Inc (BMI) Pop Awards in Los Angeles, which organisers said honoured her "artistic talent and influence".

Swift's accolade is only the second time in the BMI's 76-year history that the organisation has presented an award in an artist's name. Michael Jackson was the first to achieve the honour in 1990.

Swift was joined by her family as she was presented with the eponymous award and named pop songwriter of the year at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.

She told the audience: "I'm really super-relieved that BMI decided to give me the Taylor Swift Award because if they had chosen someone else to give the Taylor Swift Award to, I'd be kind of bummed about it.

"This night has been unbelievable. My whole family is here. My brother Austin and everyone else. My dad is filming on his phone.

"Thank you for awarding my favourite part of my life and all the adventures that this career path has brought.

"My favourite part is when I'm in the middle of a conversation with my friends and my eyes glaze over and I awkwardly run over to a corner. I have to explain to them that I have this issue called: 'I love song-writing so much that it interrupts my daily life'."

Swift, who is first woman to win album of the year twice at the Grammy Awards, said she enjoyed introducing surprise guests during her concerts because fans had often already seen parts of her shows from videos on the internet.

"We live in an age where everybody has the ability to see your show online before they come, if they want to," she said.

"If you surprise them with a special guest, they actually get to feel that very unique-in-2016 feeling of being surprised by something."

Uptown Funk was named pop song of the year, while Sony/ATV was awarded BMI's pop publisher of the year after achieving 23 of the year's most-performed songs.

Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, the song-writing team behind classic hits including You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, On Broadway and Just Once, were presented with the BMI Icon Award.

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