We conclude our Dove Prediction posts with the predictions for Artist of The Year, New Artist of The Year, and Song of The Year. We will also briefly comment on the Video Awards.
Song and Album of The Year are typically category busters. Now the 2013 Dove Awards had 21 Song of The Year Nominees, which was a joke. There are 10 this year. Since #PlatVnyl5 had 9 nominees for Song of The Year, this is not excessive. The nominees were as follows:
- Overwhelmed, Big Daddy Weave
- Thrive, Casting Crowns
- Come As You Are, Crowder
- Hope In Front of Me, Danny Gokey
- How Can It Be, Lauren Daigle
- He Knows My Name, Francesca Battistelli
- Greater, Mercy Me
- Multiplied, Needtobreathe
- We Believe, Newsboys
- This Is Amazing Grace, Phil Wickham
Except for Big Daddy Weave, they appear to be of #PlatVnyl5 vintage. With the exception that Lauren Daigle was a nominee for AC/Insp Song, none of them were among my nine. We think different here at The Night Beat. I'm going to go with How Can It Be by Lauren Daigle for the win. I think it will be Casting Crowns for the industry.
The Doves for 2015 have Artist of The Year, New Artist of The Year, Southern Gospel Artist of The Year, Gospel Artist of The Year, and Contemporary Christian Artist of The Year. We just have the first two. New Artist nominees were About A Mile, Danny Gokey, I Am They, Lauren Daigle and NF. I really liked Daigle's powerful voice, and I was impressed by About A Mile, so I'll predict one of the two.
Artist of The Year nominees were For King And Country, Francesca Battistelli, Kari Jobe, Lecrae, and Mercy Me. Kari Jobe was the only one on my list. I think it will either be her or Francesca.
One last prediction. Video, or in Dovespeak, Short Form Video. The nominees were: You Can't Stop Me by Andy Mineo; Take This City by Everfound; Shoulders by For King and Country; Dreams by Kings Kaleidoscope; and Wake Up by NF. Two rap, two pop and one alternative. I'm treating this as Video of The Year. I had none of the nominees and the King's Kaleidoscope video is of #PlatVnyl6 vintage. I'll pick them nonetheless. The Platinum Vinyl Awards have 14 Video Categories, allowing for as many as 70 nominees. It allows for much more variety.
That does it folks. The Dove Awards will take place in Nashville on October 13. While I won't be there in person, I will keep tabs and either eat crow or gloat at my prognostication skills. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
Though we are a bit delayed, we continue with our predictions as to who will win the 2015 Dove Awards. Since the awards wont be handed out until October, I am not going to miss anything. I will be a little bit bolder here. Not that I am no longer concerned about tipping my hand, just not as much. After all, if I like a song on the album, that's no indication I will love the album.
We begin with Worship Song. The five nominees were Great Are You Lord by All Sons and Daughters; Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli; Forever (We Sing Hallelujah) by Kari Jobe; Because He Lives (Amen) by Matt Maher; and This Is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham. Based on the airplay ratings and popular opinion, I am going to go with Holy Spirit for the win, but that is just wrong. For pure power and feeling there is no argument. Forever (we sing Hallelujah) should win.
Pop/Contemporary Song (or Pop Song for the PVA's) had six entries: Come As You Are by Crowder; Shoulders by For King and COUNTRY; Touch The Sky by Hillsong United; How Can It Be by Lauren Daigle; We Believe by Newsboys; and Soul On Fire by Third Day. I really have no dog in the race for this one, but Lauren Daigle was a nominee in #PlatVnyl5 for AC/Insp. Plus I once knew a family of Daigle's, and coincidentally they had a baby daughter named Loren. I think For King and Country is going to take the Dove.
Rock Song was a real head-scratcher. Safety (ft Stephen Christian) by Fireflight; Darkest Part by Red; Good to be alive by Skillet; Furious Love by Veridia; and Dead Man by We As Human. Red and Fireflight are the #PlatVnyl6 nominees and I hope the winner is one of them. Veridia was a #PlatVnyl5 nominee and Skillet and We As Human were in #PlatVnyl4. I have a bad feeling that Skillet is going to win for an old song. Red should.
Rap Song nominees are Who You Know by Derek Minor; Sideways (feat Lecrae) by KB; All I Need Is You by Lecrae; Mansion by NF; and Volcano (ft Jonathan Thulin) by Rapture Ruckus. I'm going to predict Mansion as the winner with NF, though of the choices offered, I would pick Volcano, which is in the #PlatVnyl6 pool. One caveat though. Despite the Rap by Rapture Ruckus in the song, it is not a Rap Song. It plays more like EDM or Alternative Rock.
I will do Song of The Year, Artist, New Artist and Dabble with videos in the final post. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
The Album Awards for the 2015 Dove Awards are down to the genre based awards. Yes, that is the bulk of the awards, but not giving honor to the album which rose above it all cross-genre seems a major oversight. Country, Southern Gospel, and Bluegrass aren't represented at the Platinum Vinyl Awards and wont be discussed. One small exception. Bluegrass has revitalized Contemporary Christian Music as hard as that may be to believe. Folk Rock and Rock and roll have The Vespers and Hip Hop has Whosoever South. There is a strong bluegrass influence in both.
One other quick note, I think the GMA needs to clean its closets out, so to speak, unless they are intentionally messing with me. Since I don't believe they even know I exist, I am going with the former. Most of the entries are in the #PlatVnyl6 pool so I can't comment without tipping my hand. A good amount of entries are in the already awarded #PlatVnyl5 pool, but a number of them are from #PlatVnyl4. It's time for the oldies to be let go. On to the albums
Worship Music corresponds to the Modern Worship Album of The Year with us. Three nominees (We Will Not Be Shaken, Bethel Music; Love Ran Red, Chris Tomlin; and Even So Come by Passion Conference) are in the #PlatVnyl6 pool. Based on results from 2013 and 2014 I will say that the winner should be one of these three. I know, that's an awful big limb I'm going out on. I said I don't want to show my cards. Red has been known to draw attention, though. Just shaking things up. The two nominees from #PlatVnyl5 (All Sons and Daughters (Self-Titled); and No Other Name, Hillsong Worship) took different paths. ASD was one of the final nominees in Folk/Folk Rock, and Hillsong Missed The Mark needed to gain the initial pool.
Pop Music (Pop/Contemporary in Dovespeak) has 6 entries, 4 of them in the current #PlatVnyl6 pool. (Tomlin; How Can It Be, Lauren Daigle; Saints and Sinners, Matt Maher; and Lead Us Back: Songs of Worship by Third Day). As much as I love Lauren Daigle's Powerful Voice, I don't think they will reward the newbie. I would either pick Tomlin as part of a multiple category win or #PlatVnyl5 pool entrant For King and COUNTRY.
Rock Music is a whole lot easier to pick. Of the 5 nominees four of them are from #PlatVnyl5 (Lowborn, Anberlin; Attack, Disciple; Fight The Silence, For Today; and Oxygen: Inhale, TFK). While I would be thrilled if the sole #PlatVnyl6 nominee, Red's Of Beauty and Rage won, I think the public sentiment in this horse race is for Disciple to win.
I'll just make a few predictions to shake things up in the other categories, since in a lot of them I didn't have any of the Dove nominees in my pool. Inspirational Album we'll go with Phillips, Craig and Dean's Above It All; Rock Contemporary to Colton Dixon's Anchor; Rap with Anomaly by Lecrae; Traditional Gospel with Any Given Sunday by Charles Jenkins; and Kierra Sheard's Graceland for Contemporary Gospel Album. Next time we will discuss the Song Awards. Until Then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
If you've followed this blog for any length of time you know that I have been highly critical of the "Industry Awards" (Grammy and Dove). In fact it is because of them that I created the Platinum Vinyl Awards back when I started. We are just wrapping up the nominations process for year 6 by the way. Still, if I hope to maintain any sense of professionalism, I have to keep watch on the competition.
Well it is that time once again as the new Fall Dove Awards has issued its nomination list, and my feelings are quite mixed. They have finally expanded their knowledge base of Christian Artists to include some fairly popular bands. In one case, however, the band has broken up. I guess better late than never.
Of course some moves leave you scratching your head. They got rid of Album of The Year but kept Song of The Year. Now I know writing a song isn't easy (If it was I would have written one) but an Album is a collection of at least 10 songs, so Album of The Year is therefore more of an honor.
On the other hand, they went from two artist of the year awards (Artist and New Artist, which is standard) to FIVE, with the genre based Gospel, Southern Gospel, and Contemporary Christian Artist thrown in as well. Why not do it for all the genres? Because even the GMA knows that to do that would be to turn the Doves into a joke. Hey, at least they got rid of that ridiculous "Performance of The Year" category. Best Concert? That's what I thought it meant.
I will be going through the Album, Song and other awards when they overlap with mine and make my choices when I can. Since a lot of the nominees are also in the #PlatVnyl6 pool I can't say too much about it without tipping my hand. Very Sneaky GMA. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
