Mercy!
Red-hot MercyMe cleans up at Gospel Music Awards; Camp, Orrico and Switchfoot also big winners.
by from reportsphotos by Andy Argyrakis | posted 1/01/2004
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Christian pop/rockers MercyMe came out of virtually nowhere a few years ago with a smash overnight hit, "I Can Only Imagine," and they've been riding the crest of that wave ever since, showing no signs of coming down.
MercyMe meets the press after picking up their hardware
The band's immense popularity received another shot—three big shots, actually—in the arm at the Gospel Music Association's 35th Annual Awards event, held Wednesday night in Nashville's Municipal Auditorium.
MercyMe picked up three major awards: Song of the Year for "Word of God Speak," Group of the Year, and Artist of the Year. The band also won an award for Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year, also for "Word of God Speak."
On top of all that, the band's brand-new album, Undone, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard magazine's Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart, and at No. 12 on The Billboard 200. The new CD is also No. 11 on Billboard's Top Pop Albums list, ahead of such names as Kid Rock, Nas, Metallica and John Mayer.
At Wednesday's awards show, MercyMe frontman Bart Millard, who composed "Word of God Speak" with Pete Kipley, was quoted in Billboard as saying, "The greatest thing about winning a Dove Award is that it's essentially coming from your peers and people in the industry. Being that they are people who do this all the time and hear and see so much, makes this an especially big honor."
Jeremy Camp was Male Vocalist and Best New Artist of the Year
Also Wednesday, Jeremy Camp picked up two major awards as Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year, while Stacie Orrico won as Female Vocalist of the Year and for Short Form Music Video of the Year ("More to Life").
Switchfoot picked up awards for Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year (The Beautiful Letdown), Rock Recorded Song of the Year ("Ammunition"), Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year ("Meant to Live").
Casting Crowns' huge hit, "If We Are the Body," didn't win Song of the Year, but its composer, band frontman Mark Hall, was named Songwriter of the Year.
Rebecca St. James picked up a Dove for her role in !Hero the Rock Opera
"Twelve months ago, we were just talking about doing this," Hall told The Tennessean. "It's amazing how fast things move when God wants to do something."
Wednesday's event introduced many new faces in Christian music, while omitting some of the old ones. The usual big winners—Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Nicole Nordeman, Rebecca St. James, Third Day—didn't garner any of the major awards. Third Day, however, did win for Praise & Worship Album of the Year (Offerings II) and for Long Form Music Video of the Year (Third Day Live in Concert: The Come Together Tour).
Yolanda Adams co-hosted the show, to be telecast May 28
The Gospel Music Awards show, hosted by Yolanda Adams and Deion Sanders, was broadcast live via simulcast at 50 Regal Entertainment Group Theatres nationwide, and taped for broadcast on UPN May 28.
A complete list of Wednesday's winners follows. (To see the complete list of nominees, click here.)
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