The free streaming program will be available on Sunday, October 10. Maurette Brown Clark will appear alongside Anthony Brown & Group TherAPy, JJ Hairston, and Patrick Riddick. Multi-award-winning musician and syndicated radio personality Lonnie Hunter will host the four-part weekly virtual “Gospel City Playlist” series, where artists will vie to see whose region produces the greatest gospel hit makers and hits. The series will air at 8 PM ET every Sunday from September 19 to October 10 on BET Network’s YouTube channel and BET.com.  By Robert M. Marovich JGM spoke recently with Maurette Brown Clark, the “Princess of Praise & Worship,” ...

Congratulations to the winners of 2021 Rhythm of Gospel Awards! #1 Contemporary CD Of The YearChester Burke Jr & Company CD-“Jesus, I Bless Your Name” #2 Special Event CD Of The YearNorthern Delaware Chapter GMWA Recording Choir “God Be Glorified” 2017 #3 Traditional CD Of The YearFrederick Shorter & the Blakely Mass Choir CD-“He’s A Wonder” #4 Praise & Worship CD Of The YearVonnie Blackshear CD-“Still Standing” 2014 #5 Quartet CD Of The YeaYoung Men 4 Christ Fulfilled CD – “Feel the Music from Within” #6 Rhythm Of Gospel CD Of The YearApostle James F Pickney & The Voices Of ...

By Robert M. Marovich Eric Maurice Clark informed JGM that Archbishop Carl “Pops” Bean passed away on Monday, September 7, 2021, after a lengthy illness. Archbishop Bean was an openly gay man, the Presiding Prelate of Unity Fellowship Church, Inc., a denomination he founded in Los Angeles to provide a welcoming ministry for all, but especially for lesbian, gay, and bisexual African Americans. He organized the Minority AIDS Project in Los Angeles and worked tirelessly on behalf of LGBTQ people of faith. Bean’s 1977 single for Motown, “I Was Born This Way,” also the title of Bean’s 2010 autobiography, inspired ...

The Journal of Gospel Music garnered its first competitive award on Saturday, September 4, when it received the Gospel Internet Promotion & Marketing Group of the Year Award from the Rhythm of Gospel Awards. The 13th annual Rhythm of Gospel Awards was held at the Guesthouse at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Bob Marovich, founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gospel Music, expresses his heartfelt thanks to Dr. Mark Rogers and the Rhythm of Gospel Awards team and to those who voted for the site. It’s especially meaningful coming from an organization that, like the Journal, supports the efforts of ...

The Journal of Gospel Music was saddened to learn of the passing of Lee Williams, quartet legend and leader of the Spiritual QCs. Below is a brief bio of Williams and the group that I wrote back in 2019: Born July 28, 1946, and raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, Lee Williams began singing gospel at the tender age of seven. He was encouraged to do so by his uncle, Mitchell Thornton, who was part of a quartet called the Gospel Stars. Soon, Lee and his three brothers were performing as the Gospel Stars Juniors. Thornton formed another quartet called the Spiritual ...

Nashville, TN — Legendary Stellar Award and NAACP Award-winning radio announcer Connie Denell Cato-Dickerson was the pride of Nashville. The daughter of radio legend Evelyn Cato, the first black female disc-jockey in the Southeast, Denell started as a sports reporter for her school newspaper while attending Riverside High School in Chattanooga, TN. She worked for two local Chattanooga radio stations, WNOO AM and WNTP, hosting the Quiet Storm shows before attending the famed Morris-Brown College, a historically black college in Atlanta, GA. Denell went on to attend Georgia State University and worked at the local Atlanta radio station WAOK FM ...

From a press release: Apostle H. Daniel Wilson, Pastor of Valley Kingdom Ministries International (VKMI) in Chicago, and founder of the platinum-selling group, Shekinah Glory Ministry, has launched a year-long transition that will welcome Ray Bady as the 5,000-member church’s new leader in 2022. “I am not retiring,” says Apostle Wilson, who has been the church’s pastor for 37 years. “So many only see two paths for pastors, either dying or retiring. Neither of these are on my radar just now. I will not take these gifts of God to the grave. This is not my end. I’m just getting ...

By Robert M. Marovich I was inducted into the Gospel Industry Network’s Hall of Fame last night along with such leading lights as Willie Rogers (Soul Stirrers), Jeral Gray (Chicago Mass Choir), and Dr. Joyce Logan (Gospel International). The program was part of the G.I.N.’s first-ever convention, which took place at Christ Unity Evangelistic Church on Chicago’s South Side. Some photos from the evening program: It was a great honor to be selected in this first class of honorees. I always say, nobody ever has to be nice to you, but it’s so nice to be nice. Thank you to ...

ELEVATION WORSHIP, FOR KING & COUNTRY, BRANDON LAKE, CECE WINANS AND ZACH WILLIAMS LEAD NOMINATIONS The GMA Dove Awards in-person Nashville event will be held October 19th and will air exclusively on TBN, Friday, October 22nd, 2021 8:00p.m. ET and 10:00p.m. ET Nashville, Tenn. (August 11, 2021) – The Gospel Music Association is pleased to announce nominees for the 52nd Annual GMA Dove Awards. Top nominations include Steven Furtick with ten (10) nominations, Chris Brown with nine (9), Wayne Haun with eight (8), seven (7) nominations each for Elevation Worship and Brandon Lake, six (6) to for KING & COUNTRY ...

(Houston, Texas) Blacksmoke Music Worldwide and Kerry Douglas Radio Promotions expands its bandwidth with the addition of Gregory Gay to its ranks. “Gregory Gay has been a fixture in the inner workings and behind the scenes of Gospel music for over two decades”, says Blacksmoke CEO Kerry Douglas. He has been a much loved minister of music and choir trainer/vocal coach (he can sing a little bit too) , a radio personality, a music editor, contributor to several books on Gospel and a management, marketing and publicity strategist. He knows the history of this great music and celebrates its continued ...