Justin Timberlake Tapped by Songwriters Hall of Fame for Icon Award

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Justin Timberlake will be honored by the as the second recipient of their Contemporary Icon Award, to be given out at the org’s 50th annual dinner and ceremony June 13 in New York.

Organizers announced that the Contemporary Icon Award “has been initiated in order to celebrate a songwriter-artist who has attained an iconic status in pop culture” — a qualification that allows for a younger honoree than the more veteran writers being inducted into the Hall of Fame. The only previous recipient of that particular award was Lady Gaga in 2015.

“Like Michael Jackson and George Michael before him, he’s turned pop music into great art,” said SHOF chair Nile Rodgers in a statement, “and made three or four of the most influential albums of the last 15 years. How? He knows the secret is extraordinary songs. He and Timbaland have defined an era.”

Timberlake is not the only under-40 writer receiving an award from the Songwriters Hall this year, though. Halsey was previously announced as picking up the org’s Hal David Starlight Award.

The official inductees into the Hall of Fame for 2019 are Dallas Austin, Missy Elliott, Tom T. Hall, John Prine, Jack Tempchin and Yusuf, aka Cat Stevens. Others being celebrated include Carole Bayer Sager, who will get the Johnny Mercer Award, and music publisher Martin Bandier, tagged for the Visionary Leadership Award.

The ceremony will take place at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.