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NASHVILLE — Unity and diversity were the common threads at Wednesday night's 36th annual GMA Awards, the Gospel Music Association's version of the Grammys. Held at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the ceremony lauded artists in genres spanning pop, rock, gospel, urban, and worship, as well as a bevy of other smaller categories.

The biggest honor of the night, the Artist of the Year award, went to mainstream breakthrough act Switchfoot, a no-show at the ceremony. The group also received awards in the Rock/Contemporary Song, Short Form Music Video, and Long Form Music Video categories. Lead songwriter Jonathan Foreman also won a Dove for writing on "Dare You to Move."

Mark Hall with one of his awards

Adult contemporary favorites Casting Crowns too took home big honors in the Group of the Year, Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song ("Who I Am"), and Inspirational Recorded Song ("Voice of Truth") categories. Lead singer Mark Hall was also the recipient of statuettes for Songwriter and Song of the Year for "Who I Am," as well as for the band's two recorded song awards.

Jeremy Camp and Nicole C. Mullen were named Male and Female Vocalists of the Year, respectively.

"This cannot be what makes you or break you," Mullen said of her award. "I love these [awards], you don't want this to be the height of what you do. The best is still yet to come. My reward is in heaven."

The Crabb Family performed at the event

Another notable honoree was the fast-rising Crabb Family. The wide-ranging neo-Southern Gospel group received Dove Awards for Southern Gospel Recorded Song ("He Came Looking for Me"), Country Recorded Song ("Forever"), and Traditional Recorded Gospel Song ("Through the Fire") featuring Donnie McClurkin. On top of that, the group was awarded the Southern Gospel Album award for their album Driven, with the siblings and their father getting miscellaneous trophies as co-writers and co-producers.

The most prominent winner in the gospel categories was worship leader Israel Houghton and his New Breed ensemble, snagging the Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song ("Again I Say Rejoice") and Contemporary Gospel Album (Live from Another Level) awards, beating out such heavy-hitters as Fred Hammond and Smokie Norful in the process.

GMA president John W. Styll lauded the diversity represented by the big winners.

"I love the fact that Switchfoot and The Crabb Family share top Dove Award honors this year because it powerfully reveals the variety of cultural expressions of the Gospel through music," said Styll. "These two groups could not be more different culturally and musically and yet, the message of the gospel is evident in both of them."

Styll noted that many GMA Award winners have "the unique ability to create music that reaches across cultural, religious and generational divides to encourage the gospel music faithful and inspire a newer generation of music fans."

TobyMac, who won Rap/Hip-Hop Album of the Year for Welcome to Diverse City, was pleased to see more racial diversity at the GMA event and throughout the industry, but he also made a plea for even more.

"My wife is Jamaican," he said. "My life is diverse. My family is diverse. My label is diverse. My record is diverse. … I'm not saying [the GMA or contemporary Christian music] is maliciously racist. But if we want to be the best we can be as an industry, that side of music has to be represented."

Building 429 won Best New Artist

In the New Artist category, Building 429 pulled the biggest upset of the night, beating out other newcomers Bethany Dillon, Day of Fire and BarlowGirl.

Other surprises occurred in the Modern Rock Recorded Song, where out-of-the-box group MuteMath won for "Control." Vocal trio Selah scored their third consecutive win in the Inspirational Album of the Year slot with their effort Hiding Place, fending off competition from early favorites Fernando Ortega and Sandi Patty. And powerhouse singer Kierra "KiKi" Sheard won the Urban Recorded Song honor for her smash "You Don't Know," over songs by Out of Eden and RJ Helton. Even expected winner MercyMe (Undone) had tough competition from Michael W. Smith (Healing Rain) and Steven Curtis Chapman (All Things New) in the Pop Contemporary Album category.

Variety was visible not only in the winners, but also in the choice of hosts, presenters and performances.

Unlike previous years, the event was hosted by three different artist pairings, which included Australian worship leader Darlene Zschech and gospel vocalist Israel Houghton, pop/rock singer Rebecca St. James and gospel vocalist Smokie Norful, and GMA darling Steven Curtis Chapman and gospel superstar CeCe Winans.

Though not all had previous experience hosting, they all seemed at ease during the job. "That's everyone in the industry except for Darlene [Zschech] and me," commented Israel Houghton with a laugh after listing the long list of nominees for the Special Event Album award. Zschech herself, who admitted to having no clue as to how to host an awards ceremony, encouraged the audience to rejoice in the night's festivities, even poking fun at her own Down Under Culture: "We can't dance," she said, "but we can jump."

Michael W. Smith and Steve Taylor

Presenters Steve Taylor and Michael W. Smith used their opportunity at the podium to present a trailer for The Second Chance, a film project co-written and directed by Taylor, and which also stars Smith in the lead role. The movie will be out this fall.

He didn't win any awards, but in the performance camp, multi-faceted gospel artist Tonex gave the most energetic, entertaining performance. Draped in a velvety, crimson-red long coat and wearing a straight-hair wig and plenty of bling, the performer interpreted the raucous, Jesus Christ Superstar-channeling "Alive 2." And he even did a split!

Other memorable performances included the Watermark/David Crowder/Matt Redman/Chris Tomlin collaboration in a medley of "Blessed Be Your Name" and "Holy Is the Lord."

Tomlin also won the Worship Album of the Year award for Arriving, and later said, "I wrestle with being nominated for these things. We don't make records to win awards. That people acknowledge what we did is great. [But] if people are going to know my name, I hope it's for pointing people to God."

Some weren't even expecting to get awards. "I was just coming to hang out and I walk home with this!" said an astonished Donnie McClurkin after winning an award for participating in "Through the Fire" by the Crabb Family, which he had no clue was nominated.

In all, 44 awards were given during the entire taped ceremony. Though it was not transmitted live, an edited version of the sprawling show will be televised in national syndication during the month of June. Central City Productions of Chicago, Ill., will handle first run syndication through network affiliates and independent stations nationwide, with an expected audience reach of at least 75 percent of U.S. households.

For a complete list of GMA Award winners, click here. Photos by Andy Argyrakis.

Copyright © 2005 Christian Music Today. Click for reprint information.

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