The 42nd Annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards were handed out Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at the historic Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA. I had the great privilege to attend and cover the event with NRT founder Kevin McNeese. Our time in Atlanta started two days before the awards show, and we had a blast as 11 artists visited the NRT hotel suite for interviews, which we streamed live online. (
You can view 10 of those interviews here.)
The night was full of special collaborations.
Chris Tomlin and the
Passion artists kicked off the evening with a praise and worship sing-along of “Our God.”
Third Day’s performance of their current single “Children of God,” represented hope as Third Day was joined by
Mark Hall of Casting Crowns and
Steven Curtis Chapman in advance of the GMC Uplift Someone Award, which honored Chapman and his wife Mary Beth’s ministry, SHOW HOPE.
Kenny Rogers and
Point of Grace finished "The Rock Of Your Love" with a standing ovation. Other show highlights included all of the Female Vocalist of the Year nominees performing a tribute to the legendary
Sandi Patty, the Dove Awards' most honored female singer to date.
Word Entertainment, Warner Music Group’s Christian music division, is celebrating its 60th anniversary year with a total of 19 Dove Award wins, including five of the top eight awards this year. Fervent Records’ superstar,
Francesca Battistelli, won the award for “
Artist of the Year,” making her the first female vocalist in 19 years to claim the elite title. The last female to win the award was Word Label Group artist Amy Grant.
Hot debut artist
Chris August also made an impressive sweep at Wednesday’s award show receiving awards for “
New Artist of the Year” and “
Male Vocalist of the Year,” adding him to an elite group of artists in the history of the show who have received both awards. The only other artists who achieved this feat were Jeremy Camp in 2004 and Michael English in 1992.
It was a blast conducting interviews with GMA Dove Award-nominated Word Label Group artists
Chris August,
Group 1 Crew and
Sidewalk Prophets before the event and I asked them about each of their ministries, and their thoughts on the long history of their label. Dave Frey from Sidewalk Prophets quickly offered up that he was honored to be on the same label as Rich Mullins. Although Sidewalk Prophets didn’t take home the award for “
Group of the Year,” they cheered as fellow Atlantic Records and Word Label labelmates
NEEDTOBREATHE earned the honors. Manwell Reyes from Group 1 Crew said they are humbled to be part of such a rich musical tradition, and love the banners at the label's headquarters that honor previous impact artists.
Exclusive 2011 Dove Awards Photo Gallery (76)
Click Here To View More Exclusive Photos From The 2011 Dove Awards!
Chris August - Backstage From The 42nd Annual Dove Awards
It was both thrilling and exhausting live-blogging with Kevin McNeese backstage from the beginning of the pre-show at 4:30 p.m. until the last award was given out around midnight. We had more than 3,800 visits to our blogging page during the event, where we blogged about everything we saw. From the flurry of awards given out during the pre-show, to the press conferences with the award winners, to the performances and the main event awards, there was a lot to do, to say the least. If you missed our live blogging, you can
view it all here.
One of the highlights for me and Kevin McNeese was the “Kevin vs. Kevin” Dove Award predictions tally. In our “Scouting the Dove Awards” series, we made our best guesses, and we kept track of who was correct in each category. Surprisingly, by differing in several key categories, this Kevin vs. Kevin Dove Award Predictions tally had a nail-biting finish. Although Kevin McNeese held a correct predictions lead of 9-8 with two awards to go, the final categories of “Group of the Year” and “Artist of the Year” went my way, as I successfully picked NEEDTOBREATHE and Francesca Battistelli, respectively. It was a crazy finish, where I pulled it out 10-9.
Some of my favorite moments of the night were when the artists came backstage to answer our questions. In addition to the two Kevins, NRT also brought a photographer,
Tim Skipper, who provided us a lot of great pictures from the event,
which can be viewed here.
With all the fanfare and celebrity of the Doves, I was concerned about the sin of pride. I prayed for The Holy Spirit to give me some biblical guidance for conducting artist interviews and a theme verse in praying before each of our artist interviews and on Monday night the Lord gave me
John 3:30: "He must increase, but I must decrease."
The ministry of Christian music is not about these great singers whom God has blessed with amazing talent, or about the media coverage. The whole purpose of the event is to praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus, for providing us this opportunity to point people to Him. As so many of the artists said in accepting their awards including
TobyMac, K
evin Young from Disciple,
Chris August and
Group 1 Crew, “To God be all the Glory.” Amen to that!
The moment that I loved the most during the award's show was
Lecrae’s performance of “Background.” After his Atlanta-based hometown fans were screaming his name from outside the arena, and he made an incredible entrance, he said the same words the Holy Spirit had brought to my attention: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Exclusive 2011 Dove Awards Photo Gallery (76)
Click Here To View More Exclusive Photos From The 2011 Dove Awards!
(L-R) Steven and Mary Beth Chapman, Third Day and Mark Hall of Casting Crowns
Backstage From The 42nd Annual Dove Awards
As Christians, we all must remember that truth. Accepting Jesus as your personal Savior and putting aside our own pride in accomplishments and laying all of our sins at the feet of Jesus is more important than any amount of awards. It is a decision that I made after hearing Gospel truth from the biblical messages of Christian music and accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. For that gift of life in Christ Jesus, I’m eternally grateful. He is risen!
