Veteran soul and bluesman Van Morrison and pop star Lady Gaga have added fresh accolades to their list of honors, winning awards from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Northern Irish singer-songwriter Morrison took the prestigious "Johnny Mercer Award" reserved for Hall inductees - just a week after he was knighted for services to music in the Birthday Honors list of Britain's Queen Elizabeth.
Lady Gaga was handed the first "Contemporary Icon Award" to honor "a songwriter-artist who has attained iconic status in pop culture."
Both received their gongs at the organization's 46th annual gala in New York on Thursday night, when new inductees included Country music writer Bobby Braddock, singer-songwriter Linda Perry and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" singer Cyndi Lauper.
Grateful Dead guitarist and songwriter Jerry Garcia was honored posthumously alongside the band's lyricist Robert Hunter. "Hoochie Coochie Man" songwriter Willie Dixon, who died in 1992, was also on the roster.
"I have some really wonderful fans in the industry who really believe in me," Lauper, 61, said on arrival at the ceremony. "I'm blown away."
