Tems, Elton John & EMPIRE’s Ghazi Honored at Billboard’s Inaugural Global Power Players Event

Billboard hosted its inaugural Global Power Players event in London on Wednesday (June 4) to celebrate music industry leaders from across the world.

The invite-only event at Shoreditch House in east London honored the chosen executives for the Global Power Players list and the first-ever U.K. Power Players selections. Huge names including Sir Elton John and his husband and manager David Furnish, EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi Shami and afrobeats superstar Tems were recognized with special awards.

John and Furnish collected the Creators’ Champion Award, and John used his speech to warn the U.K. government that “we will not back down” in relation to the Labour party’s controversial AI bill, which proposes an opt-out approach for music rights holders. Key industry figures such as John have called upon the government to work with the creative industries to find a solution; the government’s bill has been rejected by the House of Lords on five occasions in recent weeks.

“Copyright has to be transparent and seek permission,” John said. “These two principles are the bedrock of the industry and they must be included in the data bill as a backstop. Let’s be clear: we want to work with the government, we want our government to work with us. We are not anti-AI and we are not anti-Big Tech.”

He added: “I will fight for this until it’s done and people have a fair deal. Every young artist or new person who writes a song, I want them to have a future and have their copyright respected.”

Ahead of her headline set for Billboard Presents The Stage as part of SXSW London on Thursday (June 5), Tems collected the Diamond Award from incoming Billboard Africa editor Nkosiyati Khumalo.

“Being African and a musician is a whole new world and I feel like Billboard has been so supportive of not just African music but the whole scene and the culture,” she said. “This has been a really great honor, especially given that that African music is moving to heights that has never been seen before, and Billboard is one of the key players in moving that needle forward.”

EMPIRE founder and CEO Ghazi Shami was the recipient of the coveted Clive Davis Visionary Award, joining TDE’s Punch and Top Dawg (2024), Bang Si-hyuk (2023) and Joe Smith (2014) as honorees. Named after the iconic recording executive, the prize was presented by Nigerian musician and YNBL label boss Olamide, and follows EMPIRE alum Shaboozey’s record-busting stay atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”

Collecting the award, Ghazi said: “I often tell people that EMPIRE is a philanthropy company masquerading as a record label. I truly believe that in my heart. It wasn’t always that way. Being a visionary means you see a need in your community and you try and figure out how to serve that need. I felt that the San Francisco and the Bay Area community had a void in the music distribution space and fast-forward 15 years later, I’m blessed to say we built a global operation that reaches the four corners of the earth. We have employees in 25 countries and have probably the most diverse staff in the music business by design and intention.”

He added, “I grew up as an immigrant kid in San Francisco with Palestinian parents who were refugees of war, and sometimes as a child I often felt like I was invisible. How would I be seen in a world that didn’t see me? I took the initiative to build a company where everyone could be seen and everyone could be heard and I always like to tell people that if you’re excellent they can’t deny your existence.”

This article first appeared on Billboard U.S.