John Tesh behaved this year, although his "Celtic" song was longer than the time that all five of the New Artist of the Year received together. He had too many comments and parodies on the Academy Awards, but his light sense of humor was appropriate at the Doves.

Chris Rice received Male Vocalist of the Year and said, "Man, thank you...His blessing!"

When announcing the nominees for Female Vocalist of the Year, everyone excitedly clapped for each nominee, except Kathy Troccoli (there was just not much excitement about her). Winner: Jaci Velasquez! She performed: Un Lugar Celestial (in English and Spanish) with a long instrumental section in which she danced.

New Artist of the Year: Jennifer Knapp won against stiff competition this year! (Michelle Tumes, All Star United, Nichole Nordeman, Burlap to Cashmere) Nichole Nordeman gave the best pop performance, while the crowd went completely wild over Knapp's acoustic performance. Michelle Tumes was REALLY nervous and didn't do that well, although I was sure that she would receive the award.

DC Talk performed "Supernatural" which featured Kevin Max with Black Hair and Toby McKeehan in a cowboy hat. McKeehan also introduced Steven Curtis Chapman's number, with a little help from Twila Paris, Gary Chapman, and friends. The record was set straight: Steven Curtis Chapman has 37 Doves! That's a little much, but he gave a spectacular performance of "Dive" from his up & coming album, SPEECHLESS.

Special Event Album: Exodus

Packaging: The Jesus Record Finally, a Rich Mullins album wins for packaging! SONGS was nominated but never won.

Strangest Styles & Fashions: Point of Grace had silky, expensive dresses this year. All of them wore their dresses long except for Terry Jones! It looked a little odd, but they still won Group of the Year.

I'm going to have to plug the Newsboys now. "Entertaining Angels" won for best short video. They performed "Step Up to the Microphone" along with two hundred moshers (that included me!). Michael W. Smith stood directly in the middle of the moshing crowd, which was cool.

The crowd went the most wild over: Kirk Franklin. He performed "Lean On Me" with CeCe Winans and Crystal Lewis among many other singers. He said, "I want to be pleasing to Him. That's all I want to do."

Pop/Contemporary album of the Year: Smitty's Life the Life Receiving Artist of the Year, he prayed that this year at the Doves would be the "holiest moment" in Christian music history and that we would glorify the one who it is all about! I think that happened. All glory was given to God, and all of it was glory. There were no bad mistakes (although Jaci Velasquez's told us that she ruined her acceptance speech) and God was glorified through this night of honoring Christian music artists.

By Allison