American rapper Eminem, Janet Jackson, N.W.A etc are among the 26 honorable nominees for the decorated Songwriters Hall Of Fame 2025 nominees.

After winning an Oscar with ‘Lose Yourself ‘ in 2003, the ‘Not Afraid’ rapper is again battling for another history-making and highly-profiled honor.

Only 6 members will be selected from the 26 songwriters or songwriting teams vying to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame this year. Three from 13 nominees in the performing songwriters category and three from 13 nominees in the songwriters category, which is reserved for non-performing songwriters. The elected inductees will be honored at the SHOF’s 2025 Induction & Awards Gala, which will be held on June 12 in New York City.

Five out of the 26 nominees are individuals. Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan; Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter; Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham; three members of The Doobie Brothers (Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons); and five former members of N.W.A (Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella) are also the five collaborations on the ballot. 

Almost all the nominees are still alive except Sloan, who died in 2015 at age 70, and N.W.A’s Eazy-E, who died in 1995 at age 30.

Ashley Gorley and Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, both 47 are the youngest nominees. Franne Golde, Sheryl Crow, Janet Jackson and Alanis Morissette are the four women on the ballot.

Several songwriters who are strongly associated with songwriters who were previously inducted into the SHOF are on the ballot this year – Walter Afanasieff (his frequent collaborator Mariah Carey was inducted in 2022), Roger Nichols (his frequent collaborator Paul Williams was inducted in 2001), Jackson (her brother Michael Jackson was inducted in 2002) and Mike Love (his Beach Boys colleague Brian Wilson was inducted in 2000).

Crow, Eminem, Jackson, George Clinton (who is in the Rock Hall as the leader of Parliament/Funkadelic), Love (who is in the Rock Hall as a member of The Beach Boys), Steve Winwood (who is in the Rock Hall as a member of Traffic), the three aforementioned members of The Doobie Brothers and the five aforementioned former members of N.W.A are the eight Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame members on the list of the nominees.

The competitive list also features four members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame. Sonny Curtis was inducted into that body in 1991, followed by Tom Douglas in 2014, Oldham in 2020 and Penn just last week. Curtis, 87, has had many pop and country hits, including “I Fought the Law” and “Walk Right Back,” but he may be best-known for writing “Love Is All Around,” the pitch-perfect theme song from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

A songwriter with a catalog of notable songs qualifies for induction 20 years after their first significant commercial release of a song.

Eligible voting members have until midnight ET on Dec. 22 to turn in their ballots with their choices of up to three nominees in each of the two categories.

Check The Full List Of Nominees Below;

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?”

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”