All photos by Kathryn E. Darden for ChristianActivities.com
Chris Tomlin
At the 37th Annual GMA Music Awards held Wednesday evening in Nashville last night, Sixstepsrecords/Sparrow Records’ Chris Tomlin was named Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. Receiving five Dove trophies, Tomlin also closed the award show with his Song of the Year Dove Award winning, “How Great Is Our God,” from his current, RIAA Certified Gold-selling album, Arriving. The song is currently No. 1 for the third consecutive week on the R&R Christian AC Top 30 monitored radio chart, and is Tomlin’s third No. 1 radio hit from Arriving.
Tomlin received his first Dove Award last year for Worship Album of the Year for Arriving. His awards this year are:
Artist of the Year
Male Vocalist of the Year
Song of the Year (“How Great Is Our God”)
Worship Song of the Year (“How Great Is Our God”)
Special Event Album of the Year (Music Inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe)
The Afters
Following in line with their string of success, Simple/INO/Columbia Records’ artist The Afters were honored by the Gospel Music Association being selected as the New Artist of the Year last night at the Grand Ole Opry House. “It would be hard to overstate how thankful and humbled we are to be recognized by our peers in this way,” expressed The Afters on their win. “We are deeply honored to be a part of this community and the opportunity to reach across the genres to impact lives with our music.”
On Monday night, The Afters were presented with an ASCAP Award for their song “You” being one of the most played songs for 2005. The band also performed during the ASCAP Awards their hit song “Beautiful Love.”
Storming onto the scene with their debut release in 2005, I Wish We All Could Win, The Afters’ have been embraced by both the General and Christian markets. Continuing with the momentum that has driven the band from the beginning, The Afters’ popular single “Beautiful Love” remains in the Top 30 downloaded songs on iTunes, climbing to No. 21 today. The highly acclaimed song is currently the theme song for the MTV reality series “8th & Ocean.” Since the premiere of the show last month, The Afters have sold more than 40,000 digital tracks of the hit song. This song will appear in the upcoming Lindsay Lohan film, Just My Luck, which opens nationwide May 12, 2006.
Natalie Grant, Christa Wells
Curb recording artist Natalie Grant took home the Dove Award for Female Vocalist of the Year at the GMA Music Awards. This is Grant’s fourth career nomination in the category and first Dove Award win.
In addition, Christa Wells, writer of Grant’s multi-format breakthrough hit “Held,” was named Songwriter of the Year. Grant performed the poignant ballad, accompanied by Bernie Herms on piano, during last night’s ceremony. Fueled by the release of her critically-acclaimed watershed recording Awaken in 2005, Grant was among the most nominated artists at this year’s GMA Music Awards and was also the top-selling female solo artist in Christian music last year.
Kurt Carr
Kurt Carr has taken the music industry by storm as an artist who expresses a traditional spirit of faith and ministry in energetic, gap-bridging, and culture- captivating music. Kurt took home the Dove for Traditional Gospel Recorded Song of the Year for “God Blocked It”
Relient K
MMHMM, the current RIAA- gold certified album from Relient K garnered yet another accolade by being named “Rock Album of the Year.” Relient K now has two Dove Awards to their credit including the 2004 “Modern Rock Album of the Year” win with their gold-selling Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right album.
Released last November, MMHMM has proven to be Relient K’s most successful release to date. The band has seen major television exposure including appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and NBC-TV’s The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Relient K, who garnered a GRAMMY nomination with their third album Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right…But Three Do, heralds the title of the #1 ranked alternative rock band in the CBA marketplace. Relient K is fronted by Matthew Thiessen, with Matthew Hoopes (guitar), Dave Douglas (drum), John Schnek (bass), and John Warne (guitar).
Bart Millard
MercyMe lead singer Bart Millard won his first Dove Award as a solo act, and his tenth overall, in the Inspirational Recorded Album of the Year category for the widely-praised project, Hymned (tying with Amy Grant’s Rock of Ages…Hymns & Faith) . Millard has previously won nine Dove awards with MercyMe, including Group of the Year (2004), Song of the Year (2002, 2004), Artist of the Year (2004) Songwriter of the Year (2002) and more. Not on hand at the awards due to the birth of his new son, Charlie, Millard’s MercyMe bandmate Mike Scheuchzher accepted the award on his behalf.
TobyMac
TobyMac won his seventh and eighth Dove Awards as a solo artist with Rock Recorded Song of the Year for his song ‘The Slam” from the best-selling and critically – acclaimed Welcome to Diverse City, as well as for his song contribution (“New World”) to Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, winner for Special Event Album of the Year.
KJ-52
BEC Recording’s rapper extraordinaire KJ-52 took home the Dove Award for “Rap/Hip Hop Album of the Year” with his Behind The Musik (BEC/Uprock Records) at last night’s aAwards ceremony. This Dove win marks a second for KJ-52, including his 2004 award in the same category with his album It’s Pronounced Five-Two.
“ I feel honored to be chosen for this award and to be recognized by the GMA community for this category,” said KJ-52. “I consider what I do to be a privilege and I’m humbled that God chooses some of the least likely candidates to carry out his purposes. It’s a blessing and incredible opportunity to do what I do. Awards like these are little road signs on this journey that tell you to ‘keep going!’” The latest installment from this Dove Award winning rapper, KJ-52 Remixed, will street on May 2nd.
Steven Curtis Chapman
Sparrow Records’ artist Steven Curtis Chapman was awarded his 50th Dove Award at the 37th Annual GMA Music Awards. Chapman’s 50th Dove win was for his involvement in the multi-artist Special Event Album of the Year for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Chapman makes history by holding the record of being awarded more Dove Awards than any other artist. He has a record-setting nine Dove Awards for Songwriter Of The Year and won an unprecedented six Dove Awards at the Doves ceremony in 1993 and 1995 and 2000, as well as a record-breaking 10 nominations in 1989.
A highlight of last evening was the special musical presentation for Chapman, celebrating his feat of 50 Dove Awards. With surprise performances by Jeremy Camp, David Crowder, Casting Crowns’ Mark Hall and Third Day’s Mac Powell, all influenced by Chapman in their own musical careers, they performed popular Chapman hits “For The Sake Of The Call,” “More To This Life,” “Magnificent Obsession,” “I Will Be Here” and “Dive.” The special presentation ended with a standing ovation, as everyone in attendance celebrated in Chapman’s amazing achievement thus far. For more highlights and information, please visit www.stevencurtischapman.com and www.gospelmusic.org.
The 37th Annual GMA Music Awards will air in national syndication starting on Easter weekend April 15 through May 21.
Related Articles:
2006 GMA Awards Winners
Who’s Who at GMA Week 2006
GMA Week Journal Tuesday, April 4
GMA Week Journal Monday, April 3
GMA Week Journal – Sunday, April 2
GMA Week Journal – Saturday, April 1
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