The Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) will honor music industry icons John Legend, Irving Azoff, Kai Cenat, Apple & Apple Music, Sherrese Clarke and Primary Wave Music at its fifth annual BMAC Gala taking place Thursday, September 18 at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The milestone evening—co-hosted by Grammy-nominated country trailblazer Mickey Guyton and cultural curator Kenny Burns—will celebrate the Artists, executives, activists, and brands who are unapologetically leveraging their platforms to advance equity, inspire action, and ignite lasting change.

The 2025 BMAC Gala Honorees include:

● BMAC Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award: John Legend

● BMAC Icon Award: Irving Azoff

● Inaugural BMAC Harry Belafonte Change Agent Award: Sherrese Clarke / HarbourView Equity Partners

● BMAC Social Impact Award: Kai Cenat and Apple & Apple Music

● BMAC 365 Award: Primary Wave Music

Marking five years of advocacy, accountability, and impact, the 2025 Gala will also spotlight a movement that has reshaped the music industry’s role in social justice and proved that culture can be a driver of systemic change.

Since its founding shortly after Juneteenth 2020, BMAC has distributed over $4 million in direct economic relief, reached more than 5,500 students, and mentored over 500 emerging music artists and industry professionals through its initiatives and pipeline programs, and created over 200 paid internships and job placements. BMAC has transformed advocacy into measurable impact by launching guaranteed income programs to empower emerging music Artists and industry executives as well to create economic opportunity in communities; building mentorship pipelines and Music Maker Grants for emerging talent with cultural leaders like Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Victoria Monét, the Luther Vandross Foundation, the James Brown Estate, the late Chubbie Baby, as well as the Gunna x BMAC 30349 Guaranteed Income Program with hip-hop superstar Gunna; and creating paid internships, jobs, and industry access through its accelerator partnerships with the biggest companies in music including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Academy of Country Music, Live Nation, Rolling Loud, and more.

BMAC also drives policy change to protect Artists’ rights, defend creative expression, and amplify marginalized voices in every corner of the industry. The organization’s landmark legislative support includes the CREATE Art Act, NO FAKES Act, RAP Act, and HITS Act.

Larry Mestel, Founder & CEO of Primary Wave Music: “As longtime partners and advocates for BMAC’s work, being recognized with this year’s BMAC 365 Award is both an honor and a reminder of the impact we can all continue making together. Since BMAC’s launch five years ago, we’ve proudly stood alongside them in advancing justice in the music industry and beyond. We’re committed to this work now more than ever.”

Previous BMAC Gala honorees include cultural and political powerhouses such as LL COOL J, Usher, H.E.R., Lil Baby, Lizzo, The Weeknd, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Trae Tha Truth, Sylvia Rhone, Aurora James, Nikole-Hannah Jones, BET, Keke Palmer, Jermaine Dupri, Jon Platt, and The Recording Academy.

 

The 2025 BMAC Gala is produced by the BMAC Board (Willie “Prophet” Stiggers, Ashaunna Ayars, Caron Veazey, Naima Cochrane, Shay Lawson, Shawn Holiday and Damien Smith) alongside Donna Grecco for Primary Wave Music and Rikki Hughes for Magic Lemonade, and presented by Live Nation. Earlier this year, BMAC announced the renaming of its annual Change Agent Award to the BMAC Harry Belafonte Change Agent Award, in partnership with the Belafonte Estate, honoring the enduring legacy of the legendary Artist and activist.