Ed Sheeran and Sting land top BMI London Awards

British musicians Ed Sheeran and Sting landed the top honors at the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) London Awards.

Veteran rocker Sting, real name Gordon Sumner, won the music rights organization's Icon Award at the ceremony at London's Dorchester hotel on Monday (10Oct16).

Meanwhile Ed's track Thinking Out Loud won Song of The Year, despite it being released the year before (14). The prize was awarded to the writer of the most performed song of 2015.

Sting, 65, performed at the event, giving acoustic renditions of two songs released by his band The Police, Message in a Bottle and Every Breath You Take, as well as playing Heading South On The Great North Road, a track from his forthcoming solo album.

Speaking at the ceremony, the rocker said, "Your real job as a songwriter is to provide a soundtrack to people's emotional lives, touchstones for their emotional landscapes, their memories. And that's an unexpected and unanticipated honor as well as a privilege."

Bosses at the company named Sting as the recipient of the Icon Award due to his, "unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers".

He follows legendary musicians including John Lydon, Queen, Ray Davies and Bryan Ferry in winning the honor.

The event also saw a number of other songwriters honored for writing the most played tracks on US radio and television, with One Direction stars Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson, Adele and Sam Smith all having songwriting credits on the most played songs of 2015.