It’s been said that the most segregated hour in America occurs on Sunday mornings. That extends to the Grammy Awards, where gospel and contemporary Christian music are separate categories in the same field. The Recording Academy is addressing this division in a webinar set for Aug. 18 — “The Best Is Yet to Come: Music, Race and Reconciliation in the Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music Communities.”
The panel will feature Tasha Cobbs Leonard, who won a 2013 Grammy for best gospel/contemporary Christian music performance (back when the Grammys combined the two styles in one category) for “Break Every Chain (Live);” Ed Cash, who won a 2011 Grammy for best contemporary Christian music album as the producer of Chris Tomlin’s And If Our God Is For Us…; eight-time Grammy nominee Natalie Grant; JJ Hairston, who received a 2017 nod for best gospel performance/song for “You Deserve It;” and two artists who have yet to receive Grammy nominations–EJ Gaines and Holly Zabka.
The gospel/contemporary Christian music field consists of two gospel categories, two contemporary Christian categories, and best roots gospel album. For the most part, the two gospel categories are dominated by Black artists, while the two contemporary Christian categories are dominated by white artists.
There were seven categories in what was then called the gospel field through 2010. In 2011, as part of a major streamlining of the Grammys, the number of categories was cut to five (and the field was redubbed the gospel/contemporary Christian music field). One of the five categories, for the next three years, was best gospel/contemporary Christian music performance. The winners were Le’Andria Johnson’s “Jesus” (2011), Matt Redman’s “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” (2012) and Cobbs’ aforementioned “Break Every Chain (Live)” (2013). In 2014, that combined gospel/contemporary Christian music category was discontinued, setting up the current division.
Let’s take a closer look at the five categories in the gospel/contemporary Christian music field. I quote directly from the official Grammy description of the category and then report on the dominant winners in that category.
Best gospel performance/song: “(For) traditional Christian, roots gospel or contemporary gospel recording.” Top winner: Kirk Franklin has won in four of the six years that this category has been presented, as both artist and songwriter for “Wanna Be Happy?” (2015), “Never Alone” (a collab with Tori Kelly, 2018) and “Love Theory” (2019) and as songwriter of Tamela Mann’s “God Provides” (2016).
Best contemporary Christian music performance/song: “(For) contemporary Christian pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin or rock music recording.” Top winner: The Australian brother duo For King & Country has won twice in this category, as the featured artist on Lecrae’s “Messengers” (2014) and as the co-lead artist, with Dolly Parton, on “God Only Knows” (2019).
Best gospel album: “(For) traditional or contemporary/R&B gospel music recordings.” Top winner: Franklin has won in three of the nine years this award has been presented. He won for Hello Fear (2011), Losing My Religion (2016) and Long Live Love (2019).
Best contemporary Christian music album: “(For) contemporary Christian music, including pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin and rock.” Top winners: tobyMac and For King & Country have each won twice in the nine years this category has been presented. tobyMac won for Eye On It (2012) and This Is Not a Test (2015) For King & Country won for Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong. (2014) and Burn the Ships (2019).
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Best roots gospel album: “For traditional/roots gospel music, including country, Southern gospel, bluegrass and Americana.” Top winner: No artist has won twice in the six years this category has been presented. Most of the winners have been white, but former disco queen Gloria Gaynor won this past year for her album Testimony.
The Aug. 18 webinar is not open to the public. The Recording Academy sent out a “virtual programming invite,” which it says is “nontransferable and for Recording Academy members only.”