The Gospel Music Association announced the nominees for it’s 2020 Dove Awards last week. This will be the 51st year for the awards ceremony and first year for recent Christian convert Kanye West to receive a nomination.
West’s 2019 gospel album ‘Jesus Is King‘ dominated the charts and was number one on the Billboard 200. All 11 songs were on the charts at once, with many of them in the top 10, and breaking records on the Christian / Gospel charts. The 21 time Grammy Award winner was overlooked by The Recording Academy for its Grammy Awards in 2020 for ‘Jesus Is King’.
Kanye West is nominated for Rap/Hip Hop Album of the Year for ‘Jesus Is King‘, going up against Aaron Cole, Andy Mineo, GAWVI, and Social Club Misfits. He has also been nominated for Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year for the song ‘Follow God‘ and shares the honor with fellow artists Andy Mineo, Guvna B, KB, Lecrae, and Social Club Misfits featuring Austin French. His third nomination is in the Traditional Gospel Album of the Year for his work on the ‘Jesus Is Born‘ album performed by his Sunday Service Choir which was released last Christmas.
Kanye didn’t receive the most nominations though, Zach Williams and for King and Country both were nominated for five awards while Hillsong Worship, Jonathan McReynolds, Kirk Franklin, and Lauren Daigle all received four nominations. The full list of nominations can be viewed here, and the winners will be announced on October 30, 2020 on TBN.
The now presidential candidate has recently said he wants to make a Christian version of Tik Tok called Jesus Tok. West had the ‘vision’ while watching Tik Tok videos with his 7-year-old daughter and said, “as a Christian father, I was disturbed by a lot of the content but I completely loved the technology.”
This past weekend Kanye brought back his Sunday Service that has been on hiatus since the pandemic lockdown.