<\/p>\n
Bernie Taupin<\/a> has written dozens of hit songs across nearly six decades, so his tips about songwriting deserve close attention, by fledging songwriters and veterans alike. Taupin delivered them as he accepted a Trustees Award from the Recording Academy at their annual Special Merit Awards at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles on Monday (Jan. 31).<\/p>\n More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting 57 years to get one of these,\u201d Taupin said in accepting the honorary Grammy. Indeed, rather incredibly, Taupin has yet to win a Grammy in competition. But Taupin\u2019s warm and generous speech showed that, in the life of a songwriter, the work is its own reward.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that I\u2019m blessed to do what I do in a world where so many people hate going to work, they don\u2019t want to go to work, they can\u2019t stand their jobs. Songwriters are the luckiest people in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the first day that I ever wanted to write songs, it wasn\u2019t songs so much, I wanted to tell stories. I\u2019ve always wanted to tell stories, but I always wanted to think outside of the box, and so what I was thinking about on the way here, I made a list of things that I\u2019ve always tried to avoid. So hopefully you agree with me. I\u2019ve always thought in writing songs:<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got to avoid cliches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Stay out of cubicles. Don\u2019t ever write songs in cubicles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Do not rely on romance and lost love as subject matters. There\u2019s much more to write.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Always throw a curveball in, even when you\u2019re writing a simple song, because that\u2019s what\u2019s going to grab people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Don\u2019t say you\u2019re going to die if she leaves you because you don\u2019t. You get over it, believe me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Study from those around you and draw from the eye, please. And if you\u2019re going to poach, always poach from the best.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Oh, and definitely don\u2019t read books about how to write songs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Originality is a gift, so embrace it. Otherwise, you\u2019re going to be boring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Taupin\u2019s achievements have earned him the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, a dozen Ivor Novello Awards, an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and a Commander of the British Empire honor.<\/p>\n Taupin is this year\u2019s only Special Merit Award recipient who is also nominated for a competitive award at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 1). He and his longtime collaborator Elton John<\/a>, along with Brandi Carlile<\/a> and Andrew Watt<\/a>, are nominated for best song written for visual media for co-writing \u201cNever Too Late\u201d from the music documentary Elton John: Never Too Late<\/em>.<\/p>\n Taupin used the rest of the time at the podium to salute six songwriters he holds in especially high regard.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many songwriters that I admire, so many of them that have passed away. And I\u2019m going all the way back to people like Cole Porter<\/a> and Duke Ellington, the great Merle Haggard<\/a>, and then recently, my good friend Brian Wilson<\/a>, one of the greats; one of the few people I might add who can be labelled a genius, along with one of the only people, I think, that can be called a poet, and that\u2019s Leonard Cohen<\/a>. We\u2019re not poets, we\u2019re songwriters, but Leonard Cohen was a poet.<\/p>\n \u201cThis brings me to the opportunity to salute someone who actually isn\u2019t here tonight, but is getting one of these awards [a lifetime achievement award]. And for me, I was going to think that he\u2019s probably one of, but I think he is the greatest American songwriter alive \u2013 exquisite melodies, extraordinary lyrics and ideas that transcend the stars. So, while I\u2019m happy to get this award tonight, I am absolutely thrilled to be the shadow of Paul Simon<\/a>. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bernie Taupin has written dozens of hit songs across nearly six decades, so his tips about songwriting deserve close attention, by fledging songwriters and veterans alike. Taupin delivered them as he accepted a Trustees Award from the Recording Academy at their annual Special Merit Awards at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles on Monday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2260668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[419014,29110,42346,363849],"class_list":["post-2260667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bernie-taupin","tag-billboard","tag-grammy-awards","tag-songwriters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bernie-Taupin-Lists-His-Top-10-Tips-for-Songwriters-As.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2260667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2260669,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260667\/revisions\/2260669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2260668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2260667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2260667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2260667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n