Urban Album of the Year     •    This Is Me; Kierra Kiki Sheard; Fred Jerkins III, Warryn Campbell, J. Drew Sheard, Tommy Sims, PAJAM, PJ Morton, Antonio Neal, Dwayne Wright, Avriele Crandle, Fred Jerkins IV; EMI Gospel

KiKi’s mom, Karen Clark Sheard, accepted the award on behalf of KiKi because KiKi is at school and had exams this week!

Song of the Year     •    “My Savior My God”; Aaron Shust; Bridge Building, Whitespot Publishing

Okay, the adorable little kid is backstage now… he’s 8 years old and was Ricky Bobby (Will Farrell)’s son, Texas Ranger, in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He was SOO cute and I recorded the whole thing on video… You just have to hear his accent to appreciate his cuteness. He told us that during the filming of the movie, he got saved after the preaching on Revelation. I haven’t seen the movie so I’m at a little loss, but he said that after he got saved, that was where he “got the guts” to go up to the producers and ask them to change the bad words in the script that he was supposed to say. He told us, “Maybe I could say something like ‘crap’ instead of what I was supposed to say… and they were VERY nice about it.” 

Okay it was Bananas comedian Thor Ramsey that hosted the pre-show (that was the guy whose name I didn’t know earlier.) The opening graphics sequence just flashed by for the Doves main show opening and it looks like the producers of the “Facing the Giants” movie are some of the presenters for tonight.

Brian Littrell, Natalie Grant and Donnie McClurkin are hosting and Brian’s trying to sing but Natalie keeps trying to convince him that they are there to host and not sing tonight. Now Donnie’s singing, so it doesn’t look like she’s winning.

Rebecca St. James (with a VERY VERY VERY short haircut) came out with the cutest little redhead kid named Grayson who started acting when he was six years old. He’s got the most SOUTHERN accent and talked about how he was supposed to use some bad language in a film that he was in and he went to the producers and asked them to cut it out (and they did!) The audience gave him a partial standing ovation for that.

Then they announced Group of the Year….

Group of the Year • Casting Crowns

I’m trying to record some of the interviews backstage (and pay attention!), plus take photos and also watch the TV broadcast. A little overwhelming. It looks like the main awards show (the televised part) has started now and tobyMac, [edit: Kirk Franklin] and Mandisa are opening up with a performance along with a robed choir. I thought at first it was toby’s song, “Made to Love,” but my dumb headset is buzzing with static interference so loudly that I can’t tell what song it is now… [edit: Kirk Franklin] is wearing a Virginia Tech sweatshirt. Okay I think it’s all of my other equipment that’s making my headset buzz… I can hear a little better now… “I don’t wanna gain the whole world, but lose my soul…”

Christian Illusionist Brock Gill is backstage and just addressed the recent documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” and said it had “no journalistic integrity.” He said that by doing a little homework, you’ll realize that it really was very inaccurate, despite having misled a lot of people.

T-Bone just came backstage and performed one verse of the song that he apparently performed on the pre-show that he wrote that has the names of 71 different Christian artists in it. Then he sped it up and did a verse in Spanish and one in Chinese (supposedly), but it was way too fast to understand. Okay, so I take that back - now he’s answering questions in Spanish and offered to answer them in Chinese, so maybe that was for real! Now I wish we could get a copy of the entire pre-show….

Steven Curtis Chapman came thru earlier and talked about his sons, Caleb (17) & Will (16), being in a band called “The Following” and actually getting to tour with him and Jeremy Camp (I think? I might have to rewatch the video to make sure I got that straight). He also talked about his recent housefire, putting it out all by himself, and some other slightly funny comments about his attire [or lack of it] while fighting the fire (it happened in the middle of the night.) I did get that interview on video, so maybe it will show up in the Doves Reel video a little later on. He also discussed the progress of Shaohannah’s Hope and the orphanage that S.H. is starting in China.

I’m not sure who it was that said that on the TV monitor, but I’m pretty sure he was a comedian, while introducing Christian illusionist Brock Gill.

Mark Schultz just came out during the pre-show, along with Brock Gill and someone else (I wasn’t paying close enough attention). Mark was promoting his “Ride Across America” event (http://markacrossamerica.org/) and Brock rode out on a motorcycle and they went through this terribly-written shpill which I won’t even go into… Mark then turned to the microphone and thanked the writers of the show, which really got a big laugh out of the press room.

A quick update on a few awards already announced:

Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year • “Never Look Away”; Behind The Musik (a boy named jonah); KJ-52 feat. Brynn Sanchez; John Sorrentino, Aaron Sprinkle; BEC Recordings

Country Album of the Year • Precious Memories; Alan Jackson; Keith Stegall; Arista Records

Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year • It’s Not Over; Karen Clark Sheard; Otto Price, Israel Houghton, Aaron Lindsey, Karen Clark Sheard, PAJAM, John Orew Sheard; Word Records

Instrumental Album of the Year • End Of The Spear Soundtrack; Steven Curtis Chapman, Brown Bannister, Otto Price; Word Records

Children’s Music Album of the Year • Veggie Tales Worship Songs; Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki, Lara Vischer, Matt Redman; Steven V. Taylor; Big Idea Record

Spanish Language Album of the Year • Si Alguna Vez; Alejandra; Alex Orozco; Integrity Music Latin

Christmas Album of the Year • Christmas Offerings; Third Day; Mac Powell, Tai Anderson, Brad Avery, David Carr, Mark Lee, Don McCollister; Essential Records

Youth/Children’s Musical of the Year • A King Is Coming To Town; Geron Davis, Sue C. Smith, Craig Adams; Brentwood Kids Music Club; Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing

Choral Collection of the Year • I’m Amazed; Carol Cymbala; Carol Cymbala; Brooklyn Tabernacle Music, Word Music

Special Event Album of the Year • Passion: Everything Glorious; Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, Kristian Stanfill, Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, David Crowder*Band; Nathan Nockels; sixstepsrecords, Sparrow Records

Well I’ve been sitting in this press room backstage at the Dove Awards for almost two hours, since 4:00 pm CDT and I can’t believe it’s been that long already. I’ve got an insane amount of equipment set up here and hope that I don’t trip anyone up trying to get around me! Downhere just presented about 6 awards during the pre-show, which is being shown on a TV monitor here in the press room and now Superchic[k] is doing the next set of awards. Matt from Superchic[k] is definitely living it up and being a dork, but a funny one.

KJ-52 just won Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year for “Never Look Away” and dedicated his win to his yet-to-be-born son, coming next month.