All you need to know about this year’s GMA Dove Awards 

The entertainment industry has been severely hit by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, forcing concerts, shows, festivals, theater plays, movie premieres and award shows to cancel or postpone, but the GMA Dove Awards will not bow down that easily.

The gospel music award show, which has been running since 1969, will go through with its program on October 30^th but with no audience this year. Streaming of the much-anticipated event will be available, though.

The show usually consists of live performances and announcements of winners of the awards, but this year, it will all be pre-recorded.

Nominees announced

The Gospel Music Association, which is the organization behind the award show, recently announced the nominees of this year’s production.

The Florida-born singer Zach Williams and the duo For King & Country lead the way when it comes to nominations, receiving five each.

Hillsong Worship, Jonathan McReynolds and Kirk Franklin are all nominated in four categories, while artists such as Kanye West, Sinach and Tasha Cobbs Leonard are nominated for three awards each.

Three nominations for “Way Maker”

While the majority of the nominees are Americans, Nigerian Sinach stands out with her three nominations in the categories Song of the Year, Spanish Language Recorded Song of the Year and Worship Recorded Song of the Year.

Her hit “Way Maker” from 2015 is the reason for all the nominations. Sinach has written and released the song herself, but it is Priscilla Bueno’s Spanish version of the track which is nominated for the Spanish Language Recorded Song of the Year.

In the category Worship Recorded Song of the Year, it is Leeland’s version of it that is nominated, but Sinach is still listed as the writer of both Priscilla Bueno and Leeland’s versions.

Since its release, “Way Maker” has brought Sinach a lot of success.

The song has more than 155 million views on YouTube, and earlier this year, the hit made Sinach top Billboard’s Christian Songwriters chart for 10 weeks straight.

She is the first African to do so.

The Billboard charts account for the online and physical sales, radio play and online streaming of songs released in the United States.

“It is like a dream come true”

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has also shed light on “Way Maker.” In March, doctors and nurses from the Cartersville hospital in Georgia, the US, for instance, got up on the hospital’s roof and sang “Way Maker” to cheer people up.

“It is surreal. It is amazing. I do not even know how to describe it, but it is such a wonderful thought to know that what God gave you in your room can become a comfort to so many people all over the world. It is like a dream come true. It is like, ‘oh, is this really happening?’” Sinach said to CNN Africa.

The CNN journalist went on to call “Way Maker” the “comfort song of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The tune made headlines again in June, when Black Lives Matter protestors sang the song during a demonstration in Milwaukee.