The 57th annual GMA Dove Awards celebrated Christian music across the U.S.A. recently, with three artists emerging as the night’s top winners.
At last year’s Dove Awards, Brandon Lake was the clear winner. This year, while Lake won three awards, two other artists also won three: Phil Wickham and Josiah Queen.
Queen’s song “Dusty Bibles” won two awards, including the Song of the Year award and Pop/Contemporary Song of the Year.
“It wasn’t through social media or anything else, but it was opening up a Bible and spending time with Him that He completely, radically changed my life,” said Queen on social media.
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Major wins during the celebration
Christian artist Tauren Wells hosted the event for the fourth year in a row, held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 6. The show aired exclusively on TBN on Oct. 9.
Phil Wickham was another big winner of the night, taking home three awards. This included Artist of the Year, Children’s Recorded Song of the Year with “Follow the Light,” and Worship Album of the Year for Worship of the Saints.
Wickham is in the middle of his Song of the Saints tour, joined by Chandler Moore, who won the Worship Recorded Song of the Year Dove Award for the song “God I’m Just Grateful.”
Lake took home the Songwriter of the Year award, the Country/Roots Recorded Song of the Year award for “The Jesus I Know Now,” performed the song with Lainey Wilson during the ceremony, and won Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for King of Hearts.
“I’m in this crazy season of just, like, God opens another door and walking through it and just trying to give Him glory in every single room,” said Lake during his speech on stage. “And I’m thankful that you wanted to write, and it’s just cool to see people connecting with this song, especially for those that have had church hurt or maybe had this wrong picture of who Jesus is…And I even know that there was some trolls on the internet that were hating this whole ‘grace, grace, grace’ thing. But what I love about grace is that it’s not an excuse to sin; it’s what makes us want to be more like Him when you experience grace.”
Other highlights during the night
As singer/songwriter and legend in the music industry, Dolly Parton passed away earlier this year at the age of 80; Amy Grant & Natalie Grant paid tribute to her with a performance.
Jamie McDonald took home the New Artist of the Year award and performed her hit single “Left it in the River” during the show.
“I spent over two decades waiting tables and trying to write songs as I took orders on the back,” said McDonald during her speech. “I was trying to heal after years of addiction and shame. I got ahold of a Cece Winans record, or I should say a Cece record got ahold of me. It changed everything as I began to sing the truth over myself. Thank you all for the contribution you made.”
CeCe Winans also won an award, with the Gospel Worship Recorded Song of the Year for the second year in a row.
As for film, The Chosen won the Television Series of the Year once again, while the animated film David won Feature Film of the Year and Christmas/Special Event Album of the Year for its soundtrack.
The full list of winners at the 57th annual Dove Awards can be found here.
Brandon Lake and Lainey Wilson performing at the 57th annual GMA Dove Awards in Nashville. (Brandon Lake/Instagram)