It’s Dove Awards time! On October 17, the sold-out 54th annual Dove Awards will take place in Nashville, Tennessee, airing exclusively on TBN and the TBN app on Friday, October 20, 2023 at 8 PM and 10 PM. While I typically write about all the new music forthcoming on WIVH, let’s take a look back at the past year, and I’ll try to predict what artists and songs will be bringing home an award.

Katy Nichole

For Song of the Year, it’s hard to go against “In Jesus Name (God of Possible)” by Katy Nichole. Before this song was even released to radio, it was making a HUGE impact on social media with 150 million impressions on TikTok and Instagram reels! Needless to say, that momentum propelled this song to #1 on 20: The Countdown Magazine for 10 straight weeks in 2022. Because of the success of “In Jesus Name” and her debut album Jesus Changed My Life, I’m going with Katy Nichole as New Artist of the Year as well.

I also think that Brandon Lake has the possibility of winning multiple Dove Awards. The category I see him winning most of all is for Songwriter of the Year. He’s written songs not just for himself, but for the likes of Elevation Worship, Phil Wickham, Maverick City, Brooke Ligertwood, and MORE! Most of the songs he’s written or co-written are up for awards, including “Fear Is Not My Future,” “Same God,” “Gratitude,” and “This Is Our God.”

Speaking of “This Is Our God,” this song by Phil Wickham is my pick for Worship Recorded Song of the Year. It is a tough category to pick, however, as “Honey In The Rock” (Brooke Ligertwood), “Holy Forever” (Chris Tomlin), and “Gratitude” (Brandon Lake) are also in the mix.

CeCe Winans

Finally, in the Artist of the Year category, we have CeCe Winans, for King + Country, Lauren Daigle, Phil Wickham, and Brandon Lake. While any of these artists could easily win it, I feel like it’s going to be CeCe Winans this year. She’s been in the Christian Music arena since the early 1980s and is a 15-time Grammy and 28-time Dove Award winner. We’ll see if that becomes 29 times in just a few weeks!

While there are many other categories and artists to go over, I only have so much space, so I’ll have to wrap it up here. In the meantime, be listening for these Dove Award nominees throughout the month on Your Voice of Hope, WIVH, as we play these songs and more to encourage you in your faith and bring joy into your day!