Bryan Adams, Boy George and Steve Winwood nominated for 2025 Songwriters Hall of Fame

The Songwriters Hall of Fame have announced the nominees for its 2025 induction class ahead of the annual SHOF Awards Gala. 

Icons like Bryan Adams, Boy George, Steve Winwood and Sheryl Crow have all been nominated for the performing songwriters category. 

Walter Afanasieff, who helped Mariah Carey with All I Want for Christmas Is You, Mike Chapman, who co-wrote Pat Benatar's Love Is a Battlefield, and Narada Michael Walden, Whitney Houston's How Will I Know and Aretha Franklin's Freeway of Love, were all nominated in the non-performing songwriter category. 

Out of the twenty six nominees — thirteen nominees in the songwriter category and three of the thirteen nominees in the performing songwriter category — only three songwriters and three performing songwriters will be inducted. A majority of the nominees are solo artists except for five groups including The Doobie Brothers and N.W.A.

All nominees qualify for induction 20 years after they released the first commercial hit from their historic catalog.

See the full list of nominees below.

Performing Songwriters

Bryan Adams – (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Heaven, All for Love, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?, Summer of ‘69

George Alan O’Dowd p/k/a Boy George – Karma Chameleon, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, Time (Clock Of The Heart), Love Is Love, Miss Me Blind

George Clinton – Atomic Dog, Flash Light, (Not Just) Knee Deep, I’d Rather Be With You, Give Up The Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)

Sheryl Crow – All I Wanna Do, Soak Up The Sun, If It Makes You Happy, A Change Would Do You Good, Everyday Is a Winding Road

Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons p/k/a Doobie Brothers – Listen to the Music, Takin’ It to the Streets, Black Water, What a Fool Believes, Long Train Runnin’

Marshall Mathers p/k/a Eminem – Lose Yourself, Stan, Mockingbird, Houdini, Rap God

David Gates – Everything I Own, Make It With You, Baby I’m-A Want You, The Guitar Man, If

Janet Jackson – Black Cat, Together Again, Again, Got ‘til It’s Gone, Rhythm Nation

Tommy James – Mony Mony, Crimson and Clover, Crystal Blue Persuasion, Sweet Cherry Wine, Tighter, Tighter

Mike Love – California Girls, Good Vibrations, The Warmth of the Sun, I Get Around, Fun, Fun, Fun

Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know, Ironic, Hand in My Pocket, Thank U, Uninvited

Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella p/k/a N.W.A – Express Yourself, Dopeman, Fu*k Tha Police, Gangsta Gangsta, Straight Outta Compton

Steve Winwood – Higher Love, Gimme Some Lovin’, I’m a Man, Valerie, Roll With It

Non-performing Songwriters

Walter Afanasieff – All I Want for Christmas Is You, Hero, License to Kill, Love Will Survive, One Sweet Day

Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan – Secret Agent Man, Eve Of Destruction, Where Were You When I Needed You, You Baby, Can I Get to Know You

Mike Chapman – The Best, Love Is a Battlefield, Ballroom Blitz, Stumblin’ In, Kiss You All Over

Sonny Curtis – Love Is All Around (Theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show), I Fought the Law, Walk Right Back, More Than I Can Say, I’m No Stranger to the Rain

Tom Douglas – The House That Built Me, Little Rock, I Run to You, Grown Men Don’t Cry, Love Me Anyway

Franne Golde – Dreaming of You, Nightshift, Don’t Look Any Further, Don’t You Want Me, Stickwitu

Ashley Gorley – I Had Some Help, Last Night, You Should Probably Leave, Play It Again, You’re Gonna Miss This

Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins – Say My Name, The Boy Is Mine, You Rock My World, Déjà vu, Telephone

Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter – One Tin Soldier (Theme from Billy Jack), Don’t Pull Your Love, Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got), It Only Takes a Minute, Country Boy (You Got Your Feet In L.A.)

Tony Macaulay – Baby Now That I’ve Found You, Build Me Up Buttercup, Don’t Give Up On Us, (Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All, Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

Roger Nichols – We’ve Only Just Begun, Rainy Days and Mondays, I Won’t Last a Day Without You, Out in the Country, Times of Your Life

Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham – I’m Your Puppet, Cry Like a Baby, A Woman Left Lonely, Out of Left Field, It Tears Me Up

Narada Michael Walden – How Will I Know, Freeway of Love, You’re a Friend of Mine, Baby Come to Me, Who’s Zoomin’ Who?