Music

It’s not every day that a roomful of music industry executives keeps quiet during a party.
But Billboard’s annual Country Power Players Party celebrating the leaders in the genre, hosted June 4 at Category 10 in Downtown Nashville at Category 10, yielded respectful silence as a series of emotional moments highlighted the importance of health initiatives in the business.

Music Health Alliance founder Tatum Allsep challenged the industry to help financially in meeting the increasing mental health needs of the creative community as she accepted the Impact award from Brothers Osborne. Billboard country chart manager Jim Asker announced plans to step down from his position on Aug. 15, citing health issues, as Christian artist Lauren Daigle presented him with a farewell commemorative Billboard cover. And Little Big Town applied precision harmony to the poignant “Rich Man” as the band picked up the inaugural Ben Vaughn Song Champion award from songwriter Liz Rose (“Girl Crush,” “You Belong With Me”). The Song Champion hardware is named for the former Warner Music Nashville president/CEO, who died in January at only 49.

Vaughn “has left an indelible mark on our hearts,” LBT’s Karen Fairchild said, acknowledging his daughter, who attended the event. “I don’t feel at all worthy to talk about your dad, other than to just say that we miss him, and I know you do, and we’re here for you. You have a community of people here that will stand by you forever. All you do is just reach out and you tell us what you need, because that’s what your dad always did for us.”

Following a welcome by Melinda Newman, Billboard‘s executive editor of West Coast and Nashville, rising country artist Reyna Roberts hosted the Power Players Party, which included a surprise appearance by Garth Brooks, who handed the prestigious country executive of the year trophy to AEG/Goldenvoice executive vp Stacy Vee, recognizing her contributions to the high-profile Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, Calif.

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Brooks portrayed Vee as an underdog in a male-dominated industry.

“In this business, like so many businesses, a female needs to work 1000 times harder than a male to get a tenth as much as the male gets,” Brooks said. “That’s just how it always has been. The blessing on that – I think that’s what makes Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton. I think that’s what – and I was firsthand watching this – makes Reba McEntire, Reba McEntire. You can’t outwork her, right? I’m married to one of the greatest singers of any format (Trisha Yearwood). I watch her every day work 1000 times harder than me to get a 10th as much as they give me. So with that, I think that kind of describes Stacy.”

BigXThaPlug scored the Innovator award, presented by Shaboozey just weeks after topping the Hot Country Songs chart dated April 19 with “All The Way,” a rap-and-country hybrid featuring guest Bailey Zimmerman from his forthcoming collaborations project.

“X is someone who didn’t just break the mold,” Shaboozey enthused. “He melted it down and made it his own.”

Ella Langley snagged the trailblazer award, presented by Lainey Wilson, while Riley Green – who collaborated on Langley’s “you look like you love me” – was handed the groundbreaker award by Ronnie Dunn, one-half of the duo Brooks & Dunn.

“Any wisdom that has been passed along to me from the women in the business, I’ve tried to share it with Ella, and Ella seems like she’s all ears,” Wilson told the crowd. “She wants to listen. She wants to know more and do more and be more, and that’s what makes her just a superstar. I’m proud of Ella, not just for being the trailblazing artist that she is, but for the heart that she’s got to go with it.”

Asker announced his intention to pass the torch on the influential Billboard country chart position while recounting challenges he’s faced as a stage IV non-Hodgkins cancer survivor.

“They didn’t think I’d make it through the first two weeks in the hospital,” Asker recalled.

He beat those odds and subsequently ran 15 26.2-mile marathons, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He expects to continue teaching writing classes at Columbia State Community College in Tennessee, and to study for another degree.

Music Health Alliance, meanwhile, has made assisting cancer patients and other members of the music community its non-profit mission. In the 12 years since its inception, the organization has reportedly benefited more than 32,000 people and saved the industry more than $145 million in health care costs. That’s particularly noteworthy; the majority of music-industry workers are independently contracted and historically face greater difficulty accessing insurance than corporate-employed staff.

T.J. Osborne hailed Allsep as “Nashville’s very own Mother Teresa.” Allsep, in turn, sought to motivate the movers and shakers in the room to step up their game in an increasingly difficult emotional period.

“In the last few months, MHA has seen a 250% increase in requests for mental health support,” she noted. “Y’all, that’s not a statistic. That’s a screaming flare. It is a fucking S.O.S. call, and we have got to do better.”

“We’ve got to have a plan for the long haul,” she continued, noting the MHA’s new mental health initiative in partnership with Universal Music Group. We know that music heals, but even the healers need healing. So here’s the ask to every label, to every publisher, to every platform, to every artist, everybody who makes a living in this industry: please don’t just admire the mission and the impact. Feel it. Fuel it. Fund it. We so desperately need you to stand with us, to nurture the noise, and then we can truly heal the music.”