{"id":2423259,"date":"2026-05-19T13:08:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2423259"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:08:34","slug":"leon-thomas-to-receive-ascap-vanguard-award-for-shaping-the-future-of-rb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/leon-thomas-to-receive-ascap-vanguard-award-for-shaping-the-future-of-rb\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Thomas to receive ASCAP Vanguard Award for shaping the future of R&B"},"content":{"rendered":"

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LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2013 From Broadway stages to Grammy winner, Leon Thomas<\/a> is adding another milestone to his rising career.<\/p>\n

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers announced Tuesday that the three-time Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer will receive the ASCAP Vanguard Award<\/a>, which recognizes members whose work is helping shape the future of music.<\/p>\n

Thomas will be honored June 25 at ASCAP\u2019s private, invitation-only celebration of top hip-hop, R&B and gospel songwriters in Los Angeles. Previous recipients of the Vanguard Award include Victoria Mon\u00e9t<\/a>, Migos<\/a> and Janelle Mon\u00e1e<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeon Thomas is one of R&B\u2019s most creative forces today and is reshaping its sound with his boundary-breaking artistry,\u201d Nicole George-Middleton, ASCAP executive vice president and head of creative membership, said in a statement. \u201cHis passion, creativity and undeniable talent have established him as a defining voice of this generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas first emerged as a child performer on Broadway in \u201cThe Lion King\u201d before becoming widely known for his role on Nickelodeon\u2019s \u201cVictorious.\u201d After the show\u2019s end, he built a successful career behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer for artists such as Ariana Grande, Drake, Chris Brown and Kehlani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Thomas earned ASCAP\u2019s R&B\/Hip-Hop and Rap Song of the Year award for co-writing SZA’s \u201cSnooze,\u201d which won a Grammy in 2022.<\/p>\n

Thomas later stepped further into the spotlight with his sophomore album \u201cMutt,\u201d released in 2024. The project featured the breakout title track, which climbed to No. 1 on Billboard\u2019s Radio Songs chart and earned double-platinum certification. The album also included the single \u201cYes It Is,\u201d which recently achieved gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cMutt\u201d helped solidify Thomas as one of contemporary R&B\u2019s rising stars, earning Grammy wins for best R&B album and best traditional R&B performance for \u201cVibes Don’t Lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas recently released his EP \u201cPHOLKS\u201d and is touring select markets with Bruno Mars on \u201cThe Romantic Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\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.wsls.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 From Broadway stages to Grammy winner, Leon Thomas is adding another milestone to his rising career. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers announced Tuesday that the three-time Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer will receive the ASCAP Vanguard Award, which recognizes members whose work is helping shape the future of music. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2423260,"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":[24076,26990,320169,25844,21741,350012,311697,363144,474923,377815,30188,352392],"class_list":["post-2423259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ariana-grande","tag-bruno-mars","tag-chris-brown","tag-drake","tag-entertainment","tag-janelle-monae","tag-kehlani","tag-leon-thomas","tag-nicole-george-middleton","tag-sza","tag-u-s-news","tag-victoria-monet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Leon-Thomas-to-receive-ASCAP-Vanguard-Award-for-shaping-the.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423259","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=2423259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2423261,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423259\/revisions\/2423261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2423260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2423259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2423259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2423259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}