Christian music veterans and newcomers alike gathered Tuesday, October 19, for the 52nd annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, the biggest annual event in Christian music held at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena.
CeCe Winans and Jason Ingram led the night with the four awards each, with Winans winning Gospel Artist of the Year and Ingram winning Songwriter of the Year (Non-Artist). Rock duo for KING & COUNTRY took home three awards, including Artist of the Year.
Worship music also snagged some of the night’s top honors, with Chris Brown of Elevation Worship and Steven Furtick winning three awards. The Blessing” by Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes & Elevation Worship won the coveted Song of the Year, while artist Brandon Lake snagged the award for Songwriter of the Year (Artist).
Elevation Worship and Lake also won Worship Recorded Song of the “Year for Graves into Gardens;” Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music won Worship Album of the Year for Old Church Music, and Elevation Music won Recorded Music Packaging OTY for “Graves Into Gardens.” Overall, Elevation Worship and Lake were this year’s top nominated artists with seven nominations .
“All of us are just like church people, we love serving the local church,” Chris Brown of Elevation Worship told CP. “It’s why we got into it; it’s what we’ve given our lives to. Worship is what we do. Our church has just been writing songs for years, and that turned into recording albums, and that turned into this. It’s wild.”
Maverick City Music also won “New Artist of the Year,” beating out Hope Darst, CAIN, and others. The collective credited their success to the “honesty” they try to infuse into their music. “It’s about [God’s] consistency, His goodness, His faithfulness — I think that’s something we can all agree on,” Maverick City Music’s Naomi Raine told CP.
We The Kingdom won Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for their song “Holy Water,” as well as Contemporary Christian Artist of the Year.
Voted on by the GMA Professional Membership, this year’s nominees were chosen from over 4,600 submitted entries. The theme this year was “Stronger Together” and featured performances from CeCe Winans, Lauren Daigle, Maverick City Music, Elevation Worship, Hope Darst and more.
Tuesday night’s show was hosted by gospel singer Jonathan McReynolds and Natalie Grant, who performed her song “Weapon” while her husband, Bernie Herms, accompanied her on the piano and her twin daughters sang in the choir behind her.
“We woke up this morning, my husband Bernie and I, and we were praying so intently that the presence of God would so far surpass what we were doing musically; that it would all work well and represent us well, but that it would be His presence that set it apart,” Grant told reporters following the performance. “And to feel that in the room and just be like ‘Lord, you just you just answered our prayer.’”