South Africa’s premier Gospel awards show, the Crown Gospel Awards, will be screened live on SABC 2 on December 17, said World Gospel PowerHouse President Zanele LaMbokazi Nkambule, who founded the event in 2008.
She said that during its first five years the big night for Gospel artists in SA and the continent at the Durban International Convention Centre was recorded for broadcast on a later date.
“For the first time this year, the SABC has acknowledged the world-class standard of the Crowns and therefore granted a 2 hour live broadcast. This news has been received with much excitement by the Gospel music and the entire Christian community,” she said.
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She said the ICC arena has never been able to contain the numbers that want to attend the Crowns and tickets have always sold out long before the event, where 6000 people gather to ‘crown’ the sons and daughters of the Gospel industry.
Referring to the founding vision of the event, Nkambule said: “All we wanted to do was to try and bring back the Gospel into Gospel music. The crowns we give are therefore a metaphor, a symbol of the real Crowns every worshipper hopes to get in heaven.”
She said the awards are a world-class, black tie event with an amazing red carpet parade. “It is that one night when you have an excuse to dress up like you are going to have dinner with the King of Kings.”
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Past winners include Pastor Benjamin Dube, Rebecca Malope, the Plain Truth and many others. The event always attracts artists from the entire African continent, church leaders, captains of business, politicians and on three occasions, President Jacob Zuma attended the event.
The nominees for this years awards were selected from a record number of 497 entries. The public gets to vote on six categories. The Red Carpet starts at 15h30 on November 17 at the Durban ICC and the event starts at 17h00. SABC 2 will transmit live from 20h00 to 22h00. Tickets are available at Computicket and Shoprite.
