Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid has been presented with the Outstanding Contribution to the Music Industry Award at the 40th annual Irish Post Awards.
Accepting his award and speaking of the showreel created for him by fiancée Courteney Cox, he said: “I'm absolutely overwhelmed by all those amazing messages, I’m amazed by Courteney going to that effort – thank you darling.
Regarding his award - presented to him by the Irish Ambassador to Britain Adrian O'Neill - he said: “I get to make records for people I love, that’s all I do, that’s all I have to do, be in there and allow that to happen.
“We come from a history of nations that fought each other. Its amazing to see this gathering of people fighting for each other.
“When I was a kid growing up in Derry, music to me was the way forward. It was the way to say we can express this part of us here, our hearts, and do it in a way that allows others to express theirs.
My mum is here tonight she is from the bogside in Derry, as is my dad. They spoke their hearts to me and I found music, first of all as a guitar sitting in guitar in corner of my living room, now I find it in front of all these people.
“The next song I write will be my favourite song, until the song I write after that.
“Everything that you have seen here tonight is about community, we are all of us a community, we are people from Ireland who left and came here to England to make more of our life.
“We are community - what drives me is exactly that – its community.”
The star was joined by his mother Pauline and his partner, Hollywood actress Courteney Cox, at tonight's event.
Further family members were also in attendance, watching on as he accepted his award.
The Dublin-born but Derry-raised star is a prolific songwriter and producer, who is behind a wide array of recent chart hits – including Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, which is now one of the most popular singles of all time.
McDaid, who lives in London and divides his time between the UK and Los Angeles, where his partner Hollywood actress Courteney Cox lives, was honoured for his incredible talent.
On March 31, five of the UK’s top 11 albums included his songs: Ed Sheeran’s ÷ and x, Human by Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, James Blunt’s The Afterlove and Zara Larsson’s So Good. Those songs include Sheeran’s Shape of You, now one of the most popular singles of all time.
The song spent 14 weeks at No1 in the UK, 12 weeks in the US, and is currently four-times platinum in both countries.
Having streamed over 1.3billion times, it is currently the most streamed song on Spotify.
Video views are well in excess of two billion and is the longest0-running top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of all time at 33 weeks.
More than 1,000 people are gathered in The Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane tonight for the 40th anniversary of The Irish Post Awards.
Hosted by renowned broadcaster and TV personality Eamonn Holmes, the Awards ceremony honours Irish success and achievement in business, community, sport, film, music, entertainment, politics and more.
For the first time, tonight’s ceremony is being broadcast live by the Irish public service broadcaster TG4.
An estimated global audience of one million is expected to be watching tonight’s show on TV, online via irishpost.co.uk and social media channels.
The 40th Annual Irish Post Awards are sponsored by DRS Bond Management, Ardent Tide and The Color Company.
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