'Morir De Amor' Named Song of the Year At BMI's 8th Annual Latin Awards; Three Share Songwriter of the Year Title.

Entertainment Editors

LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 20, 2001

Foreign Imported Productions and Publishing, Inc.

Reels in 2nd Publisher of the Year Award

Performing rights organization BMI presented its 8th Annual Latin Awards tonight with top honors going to "Morir De Amor," songwriters Robert Dee Blades, Jose de Jesus Navarro and Kike Santander, and publisher Foreign Imported Productions and Publishing, Inc. The black-tie ceremony, hosted by BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston and Assistant Vice President of Latin Music Diane J. Almodovar, honored top writers and publishers of the most performed Latin songs on U.S. radio and television at a 400-plus person gala dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.

"Morir De Amor," written by Ramon Gonzalez Mora and published by Seg-Son Music, Inc., earned Song of the Year accolades as the most performed song in the BMI Latin catalog. The Latin Grammy-nominated song was a hit for Norteno band Conjunto Primavera. Mora also received his second BMI Latin Award for another Conjunto Primavera song, "Necesito Decirte."

Three songwriters tied for the Songwriter of the Year award with the distinct achievement of each having four songs on the most-performed list. They include Kike Santander for the third consecutive year ("Alguna Vez," "Da La Vuelta," "Mi Vida Sin Tu Amor," "Volver A Amar"), Robert Dee Blades ("Dimelo," "?Donde Esta El Amor?", "Muy Dentro De Mi," "No Me Dejes De Querer"), and Jose de Jesus Navarro ("Amor Del Bueno," "?Con Quien Estaras?", "Con Tu Indiferencia," "Te Suplique Muchas Veces").

Gloria and Emilio Estefan's Foreign Imported Productions and Publishing, Inc. received its second Publisher of the Year title with nine songs on the most-performed list. The company was also named Publisher of the Year in 1999.

A special Certificate of Achievement was given to "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)" for the song's international impact. Certificates were presented to songwriters Lou Bega (GEMA), Christian Pletschacher (GEMA) and Perez Prado, and publisher peermusic.

Other multiple award-winning songwriters included Luis Gerardo Padilla Riojas and Mario Quintero with three songs each; Jesus Armenta Minjarez, Randy Barlow, Angie Chirino, Elvis Crespo, Emilio Estefan, Jr., Juan Luis Guerra and Cory Rooney each had two songs. Publishers that took home two or more Citations of Achievement were Sony/ATV Latin Music Publishing LLC (7); Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (6); De Luna Publishing Co. and SER-CA Publishing, Inc. (5); EMI Music Publishing and Mas Flamingo Music (3); and CD Elvis Publishing, Cori Tiffani Publishing, peermusic, Redomi Music, Inc. and Seg-Son Music, Inc. (2).

BMI is a U.S. performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music. Founded in 1940 as a non-profit-making corporation, BMI opened the door to performing rights representation for songwriters and composers of all types of music including Spanish-language music. Through its musical performance and reciprocal agreements with sister organizations around the world, BMI grants businesses and media access to its repertoire of more than 4.5 million songs and compositions.

High-resolution photos of the 2001 BMI Latin Awards are available for downloading on the BMI Media Relations web site at press.bmi.com.

Please see contacts below for a Spanish version of this release. Contacts: David-Damian Figueroa 213-629-2512 x109 [e-mail]