[1]NASHVILLE (BP) – “Gratitude” and “Graves Into Gardens” singer Brandon Lake won big at last week’s Gospel Music Association Dove Awards at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
Lake took home the Dove for Song of the Year for “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” along with southern hip-hop artist Jelly Roll, who co-wrote and recorded the song with Lake. Other writers on the song are Steven Furtick, Chris Brown and Benjamin Williams Hastings.
Lake and Jelly Roll performed the hit song together in the live Dove show amid a man-made rainstorm.
The Oct. 7 show was at Bridgestone, the city’s largest indoor venue, for the first time in decades.
“I think that revival is in the land, and I think that’s being proven by the surge of praise and worship,” GMA President Jackie Patillo told Religion News Service last week.
The list of winners was kept under wraps until Oct. 10, when the show was broadcast on TBN.
In addition to Song of the Year, Lake won awards for Songwriter of the Year, Bluegrass/Country/Roots Recorded Song of the Year (for “Hard Fought Hallelujah”) and Worship Recorded Song of the Year (for “I Know a Name”).
Conspicuously absent from the awards show was Artist of the Year winner Forrest Frank, whose songs like “Your Way’s Better” and “Up” have brought him massive popularity even outside typical Christian music audiences.
Frank announced in a social media video Oct. 6 that he would not attend the Dove Awards.
“As a Christian artist, I dress kind of like the world. I kind of look like the world. My music can kind of sound like the world. So where’s the line in the sand drawn?” he asked. “I’m convicted, personally, that a line I can draw is that I will not receive a trophy for something that is from Jesus and for Jesus.”
Frank did attend last year’s show and expressed conflicting emotions [2] when accepting his awards.
“I don’t know if I even want to step on the stage. I don’t know if I want to step in the room,” he said in the video last week. “And so I have decided to take a stance of non-participation. I will not be attending the Doves or the Grammys.”
Frank received mixed reactions to his announcement. Gospel legend CeCe Winans encouraged Frank to “Stay true to your convictions.”
But fellow nominee Jelly Roll appeared to accuse Frank of hypocrisy.
“Won’t receive a trophy for something from Jesus for Jesus but will take the profits from something from Jesus for Jesus. Maybe I’m missing something here lol,” he wrote.
In addition to Artist of the Year, arguably the biggest award of the night, Frank received Dove Awards for Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year for “Child of God” and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for “Your Way’s Better.”
Other winners included:
- Winans, who, along with Shirley Caesar, took home the Dove for Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year for “Come Jesus Come.”
- Leanna Crawford, who was named New Artist of the Year
- Phil Wickham, whose song “The Jesus Way” won for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year
- Karen Peck & New River, who took home the Dove for Southern Gospel Recorded Song of the Year for “That’s What Faith Looks Like”
- Alex Jean, whose “I Need Faith” won for Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year
- Karen Clark Sheard, who won for Traditional Gospel Recorded Song of the Year (for “Yes”)
- The Nelons, who won for Southern Gospel Album of the Year (for “Loving You”). The award was accepted by Autumn Nelon Streetman, the sole remaining member of the legendary southern gospel group after a plane crash last summer [3] killed Streetman’s parents and sister.
For KING + COUNTRY kicked off the show with “World on Fire,” complete with real flames shooting up from the stage.
Host Tauren Wells, who is a pastor as well as a gospel artist, brought his Bible on stage with him and began the show by encouraging the crowd to allow God’s presence to minister to them and by reading from Psalm 145.
“There is only one reason that we’re here tonight,” Wells said, “one common denominator between all of us and it’s that without Jesus we recognize we have nothing.”
Other highlights included performances by Carrie Underwood, John Batiste, Steven Curtis Chapman, CeCe Winans, Israel & New Breed, Lady A, Vince Gill and many more.
“I want to give this message as clear as I can right now,” Jelly Roll said in accepting the award for “Hard Fought Hallelujah. “The world is hearing about Jesus like they have never heard it before. And while they are hearing about Jesus, I encourage you to put faith on your feet and feet on your faith and walk out of this building and go do for the least. They’ve heard Jesus, now show them Jesus.”
A full list of winners is available here [4].
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