award
On Tuesday (March 26), the Gospel Music Association (GMA) announced a new category dedicated to Spanish representation in Christian music for their annual Dove Awards. The award for Spanish language worship recorded song of the year will debut at the 55th GMA Dove Awards, set to take place on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at the Allen Arena in Nashville. Nominations will be announced on July 24.
The new award, which will recognize the talent of performers and songwriters of worship songs, joins two other pre-existing Latin music categories: Spanish language album of the year, established in 1998, and Spanish language recorded song of the year, created in 2017. (Bands Generación 12 and Miel San Marcos were the winners of these awards, respectively, last year).
The initiative responds to a 30% increase in Spanish-language music entries submitted to the awards show in the last five years, as well as the constant growth of Spanish language music in genres ranging including worship, urban, pop, and rock.
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“We have witnessed this genre boom internationally, without precedent or barriers,” Justin Fratt, executive vice president of the Gospel Music Association, said in a press release. “For us, it has been an honor to support our colleagues from various Latin American and Spanish-speaking countries, celebrating the greatness of their music.”
The effort was backed by other companies in the Latin Christian industry such as CanZion, Capitol CMG/Universal, Creation Music, Curb Records, Heaven and Sony/Provident, according to the release.
Henry Alonzo, CCO of Christian music publishing and distribution company Adarga Entertainment Group, tells Billboard Español that its audio and video streaming numbers have quadrupled recently, and that its artists — who have included Miel San Marcos, Alex Campos and Jesús Adrian — have reached the same stages as those in other genres of Latin music. “All this is thanks to the work done by the same industry that supports artists of this genre,” he said.
Since its foundation in 1964, GMA has served a highly diverse community of creatives and professionals within the Christian and gospel music industry. Its mission is to expose, promote and celebrate gospel music. Through the GMA Foundation and the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the association seeks to preserve the legacy of the genre’s pioneers, while celebrating the work of contemporary artists with events such as the Dove Awards.
Mere hours after a damning Instagram statement from Barbra Streisand amid piling criticism from a number of figures, including the Ginsburg family, the ceremony that would have honored Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch in the late justice’s name has been canceled.
“The last thing we intended was to offend the family and friends of RBG,” said Julie Opperman, chair of the Opperman Foundation, in a statement on Monday (March 18).
Announced via a press release last week (March 13), this year’s honorees for the foundation’s 2024 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award included Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Martha Stewart, Sylvester Stallone and Michael Milken.
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Swift backlash ensued, with members of the Ginsburg family — including the late justice’s Grammy-winning son James Ginsburg — and former RBG clerk Trevor Morrison calling on the Opperman Foundation to remove her name from the award. “When you think of trying to create a more just society, which of course was Mom’s ultimate goal, those are probably about the last names that would come to mind,” Ginsburg told CNN.
Late Monday afternoon, EGOT winner Barbra Streisand took to her official Instagram page to share a message condemning the choice of this year’s honorees. In a statement reflecting on receiving the honor from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor last year, the Grammy winner wrote, “Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor stand as two of the most respected women role models, and their commitment to democratic values, especially women’s rights, is unequaled.”
She continued, “That’s why I join the Ginsburg family in condemning the choice of honorees this year. I had the privilege of meeting Justice Ginsburg on several occasions, and I strongly doubt she would approve of these awardees.”
Formerly called the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award, the honor — which has previously been bestowed upon Queen Elizabeth II and Diane von Furstenberg — expanded to include men as recipients this year. Musk and Murdoch’s names courted the most controversy due to their values starkly contrasting with RBG’s legacy. As the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court and an ardent protector of women’s rights, Justice Ginsburg symbolizes values that don’t often align with Murdoch’s conservative media empire or Musk’s frequent brushes with anti-Semitism. Ginsburg passed in 2020 at age 87.
In their statement, the foundation said, “Our purpose was only to remember her and to honor her leadership. And, while we believe each of the honorees is worthy of our respect for their leadership and their notable contributions, the Foundation has decided that the planned ceremony in April 2024 will be canceled.”
The ceremony was originally slated to take place at the Library of Congress — which stressed that they were simply a “venue” and otherwise unaffiliated with the award — on April 13.
The RBG Award rollercoaster is just the latest stop on a busy awards season for Streisand. Last month (Feb. 24), she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award from the organization’s 30th annual awards ceremony. Streisand, of course, is also one of the most successful musicians of all time, earning 11 No. 1 albums across six decades on the Billboard 200.
James Ginsburg won the 2021 Grammy Award for best chamber music/small ensemble performance for Contemporary Voices. He boasts three career nominations.
Read Barbra Streisand’s statement below:
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Two of the culture’s greatest talents will receive a newly created honor. Rakim and Scarface are set to be honored at the first Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards.
Vibe Magazine is reporting that the two legends will each be given a high profile distinction for their contribution to the Rap genre. On Friday (Nov. 17) the Paid In Full Foundation rewarded both MC’s from a $500,000 fund as a thank you at the inaugural Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards in Las Vegas. According to the foundation’s website the organization’s aim is to ensure some of the architects of the culture are support some of the Hip-Hop’s greatest performers.
“Unfortunately, many of the most impactful original artists never received recognition proportional with their exceptional contributions to arts and culture” their mission statement reads. “The Paid in Full Foundation aims to rectify that through its grantmaking program, by both honoring the people who built Hip Hop and enabling them to pursue their creative and intellectual pursuits for the benefit of society.” Music executive and co-founder of the Paid In Full Foundation detailed why this initiative is so important. “What I want to do is all of the artists who had come early [in Hip-Hop] who had to sign bad deals or got taken advantage of that the least we could do is give to them [and] pay that forward,” Stoute states. “No one’s ever done this before.”
100% of the net proceeds raised from the event will benefit The Paid in Full Foundation’s mission to support Hip-Hop greats and other creatives. You can read about their program here.
Barba Streisand is already the proud owner of EGOT status. But the pop icon will add another landmark piece of hardware to her awards shelf in April when she receives an honor named for one of her heroes.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award named after one of the iconic and pathbreaking Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court,” Streisand wrote in a tweet announcing that she will be the recipient of the 2023 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award at the Library of Congress on April 22.
A Washington Post story about the award noted that Ginsburg was a huge Streisand fan and that late in her life when she invited her friend philanthropist Julie Opperman to her chambers to discuss establishing an award in her name for women striving to change society in positive ways, Barbra’s name quickly came up.
“She wanted to honor women of great passion and achievement,” Opperman told the paper about the March 2019 conversation that came 18 months before Ginsburg’s death. “She wanted it to be women in the RBG tradition. I’m pleased to say Barbra Streisand was among them.”
“Women everywhere have benefited from the brilliance and courage of the Hon. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” Streisand, 80, said in a statement to the Post. “She is an inspiration to us all. She devoted her life to advancing equality and justice, and the world is a better place for it. I am so deeply honored to receive an award in the name of such an extraordinary woman, American hero and an icon to the world.”
Streisand is the fourth recipient of the award, joining arts patron Agnes Gund, fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg and the late Queen Elizabeth II. The singer/actress/director is being recognized for her “advocacy of a variety of causes, including voting rights, climate change research and racial and gender equality,” the paper reported, additionally citing Streisand’s establishment of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
“It’s fair to say that for Barbra Streisand, it was shortest deliberation we’ve ever had,” Opperman said.
See Streisand’s post below.
I am deeply honored to receive this award named after one of the iconic and pathbreaking Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court. https://t.co/1QDV0obPAV— Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) February 22, 2023
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