Award-winning Gospel industry veteran Earnest Pugh will be celebrated as an honoree at the 2026 BMI Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards, recognizing his profound contributions as an inspirational and transformative songwriter. Pugh is set to receive the prestigious BMI Trailblazer Award honor following the massive success of his fifth No. 1 Billboard single, “Don’t Give Up.” The annual ceremony, which brings together the industry’s premier creatives to honor the masterminds behind the most-performed Gospel songs of the past year in the U.S., will take place at BMI’s Nashville headquarters on Tuesday, July 21.
“I initially wrote the song for placement on the soundtrack for the forthcoming movie Love Mountain,” said Pugh. “But after seeing the incredible response I received when adding it to my live shows around the country, Kerry Douglas and I decided to take it to radio, and the rest is history.”
