Winners were announced in all 24 categories, selected by 20,000 fan votes that were collected over eight weeks throughout December and January 2021. Major winners of the evening included NATALIE GRANT who took home three awards including Contemporary Song of the Year ("My Weapon"), The Inspo Award (Inspirational Album of the Year), and Female Artist of the Year. ELEVATION WORSHIP also took home three awards for The Chorus Award (Church Worship Album of the Year), Worship Song of the Year ("The Blessing") and Group of the Year. FOR KING & COUNTRY, LECRAE, COLTON DIXON and WE THE KINGDOM all won two awards each. A complete list of nominees and winners is available here.
The 2-hour show brought back live music in a major way.
Madison Line Records' HOPE VANDOUSER delivered an incredible medley of nominated worship songs, and a performance from this year's Next Big Thing winner, COLLINGTON, brought together the band members for the first time since the COVID-pandemic shut down touring almost a year ago. Fellow Next Big Thing nominee, MELANIE PENN, also performed along with exclusive performances from NEWSBOYS, joined on stage with Kevin Max, RYAN STEVENSON, and a show-stopping, beautiful set from New Artist of the Year winner, HOPE DARST. And JOHN COOPER, front-man for the multi-platinum selling band, Skillet, delivered a passionate message to the church while introducing CHRIS TOMLIN as the winner of the Mainstream Impact Award, recognizing his world in bringing the Country music community into the worship space.
The night also welcomed exclusive performances from across the seas with international artists PLANETBOOM piping in from Australia and JUNIOR GARR performing from the UK.
