The 41st annual Dove Awards were taped last night in Nashville, TN at the Grand Ole Opry House.  The show, hosted by Natalie Grant and Bart Millard (of MercyMe), featured a who’s-who of artists and execs in Christian music, along with great collaborative performances.

Among the winners in gospel categories were Fred Hammond (Contemporary Gospel Album – Love Unstoppable), Smokie Norful (Traditional Gospel Recorded Song – “Justified”), and Israel Houghton(Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song – “The Power Of One”).  There was also a tie between BeBe & CeCe Winans (“Grace”) and Israel Houghton (“I Just Wanna Say”) in the Urban Recorded Song category. 

The night was great, featuring key performances by Donald Lawrence & Jason Crabb (in a special tribute to Andraé Crouch), Natalie Grant & Jordin Sparks, TobyMac, BeBe & CeCe Winans, MercyMe, Francesca Battistelli and more.  As I mentioned yesterday, I was backstage for much of the preparation and the taping, itself, so I missed seeing a lot of the performances (I could hear ‘em though, and I loved it!).

I’ve also gotta say that I loved the vibe of the show.  Everyone seemed like one big family and I didn’t see too many of those “gotta-hold-it-together-for-the-camera, but-I’m-really-mad-that-I-didn’t-win” faces.

All in all, the evening was great fun.  Backstage, I got a chance to speak with Natalie Grant, Donald Lawrence & The Co., Wess Morgan, Brian Courtney Wilson, Calvin Nowell, B. Reith, Mandisa, Melinda Doolittle, TobyMac, Casting Crowns, Tony LeBron, Britt Nicole… I KNOW I’m forgetting folks. Sorrrrry…

If you don’t know who some of the above-noted folks are, tell me so I can feature them for you QUICKLY.  And I think I’m gonna write an editorial soon, cuz I’ve got something else to say… stay tuned.

For a full list of winners, head over to gmc’s official website.

The show will air this Sunday, April 25th, at 8pm ET/7 CST exclusively on gmc.

Watchin’???

The Gospel Music Association’s wildly successful GMA Week has been set for April 18th through 21st in Nashville, TN.  The week will culminate, as always, with the 41st Annual Dove Awards.

Anybody planning to attend?  I’m soooooo gonna try to be there, especially if the quality of the awards show is ANYWHERE close to where it was this year… just sheer excellence.

In related news, the GMA held a mega fundraiser on Monday night here in Nashville, dubbed the “Concert Of The Decade,” in an attempt to save the non-profit organization from recent financial woes.  Tickets to attend were $1,000 apiece (yes… three zeros) and the benefit featured performances by Kirk Franklin, Natalie Grant, Amy Grant, Casting Crowns, Michael W. Smith and many more.  Did anyone watch it online… or attend in person???

The event is said to have sold 350 tix for a total of $350,000, but the venue’s capacity was about 800 seats… Hopefully, this will be a helpful start.  The GMA is an asset to the Christian music community.

Incredible video… I almost couldn’t decide between posting it as a Video Pick or including the group as part of the Across The Aisle series (cuz y’all need to be up on Casting Crowns anyway!), but I decided I’ma do the video today and the full Across The Aisle deal later.

The song, “Slow Fade,” brilliantly talks about how our biggest issues don’t just HAPPEN.  They start with something much smaller– one glance, one idea, one decision– until we slowly fade into HUGE issues.

The video concept is phenomenal, working backwards to show the progression of our sinful nature… how one “imprudent” decision often leads to major sin struggles in our lives.  And the production is just as spectacular.  In fact, they just won the Dove Award last week for Short Form Music Video.

What do you think???  Feel free to weigh-in on the video and the song!