|
 |
||
By J. MATTHEW COBB
The controversy surrounds the announcement of the 25th Stellar Awards’ nominations; made available to the public on October 29, 2009. Not only did droves of gospel supporters express vocal outrage over the obvious absence of best-selling albums and Billboard favorites in the final list, but the online press - while posting the nominees and opinions on Twitter - also expressed their disappointment over how many unknowns dominated the list. Of the more apparent shockers, Vickie Winans, also a host for the 2010 show, released How I Got Over during the last week of album submissions according to the Stellar Awards’ web site. She leads the nomination pool with over eight nominations, also vying for Artist of the Year and Song of the Year. Independent artists Phillip Carter and Malcolm Williams also made the final ballot for their albums in a number of categories. Both albums received great reviews from the press, but artists like Christopher Page, Endurance, Kim Ruff, 5 AM Praise, Gerald Hinton and Anointed Praise - with very little promotion, distribution and visibility on Billboard - also landed on the final ballot. Jawn Murray commented on his Twitter page that “they just got a crazy ballot this year. The industry is tired of the foolishness.” He also made light of the nominees by creating a Twitterbot that said #YouKnowYouMadeTheStellarsBallot. Known gospel entities including Londa Larmond, Torrence Glenn (BET’s correspondent for Sunday Best) and Larry W. Robinson of Gospel Interviews.com joined in on the light-hearted Twitter column, but 2010 Stellar nominee Christopher Page didn’t appreciate the jokes. He posted you know you made the Stellars’ ballot “if a bunch of "Christians" spend the entire day tearing down someone else with rude insensitive jokes.” Henry W. Harris, current president of the SAGMA Advisory Board, issued a private message to the SAGMA authority immediately after the press conference wrapped up. “With all of these decision makers, politicians, tourism people and artists in the room, networking and celebration should have prevail,” exclaimed Harris in his note. “Instead some chose to sit in the back of the room and send out messages on twitter making negative comment about some nominees. The professionals in the room never questioned the choices but celebrated with them. Writing a Blog, sending a tweet, posting on Face Book and being on the radio,” referring to individuals like Gaines, Jawn Murray, Gerald Bonner of BonnerRadio, “does not make you an expert on God's Favor.” Clearly, his quote was considered to be a direct attack at those upset with the nomination process. Technically, the gospel industry went online to tweet their thoughts. Artists including 21:03, James Fortune, Sheri Jones-Moffett, Melinda Watts, J Moss and Coko failed to land on the final ballot. All of these artists have also received rave reviews and even received strong promotion from GospelPundit’s web site. Hints from the defense are raising questions about Gaines’ disenchantment over his industry friends failing to make the final ballot. But Gaines, in his online message to Don Jackson’s Stellar Awards’ committee, raises a number of important issues hurting the award show’s brand of integrity. One of EJ Gaines’ major concerns with the Stellars, as expressed in his Open Letter to the SAGMA Board, was how the open ballot was revised after it was posted to include an artist who was not on their originally. Out of the number of comments, a poster by the name of “Tired of this mess” spoke about Harris’s conflict of interest as president of the Academy and his executive role of a marketing firm called Spiritco1.com; a marketing agency that lists 2010 Stellar Award nominees Kim Ruff, Phillip Carter, Christopher Page, Marjane, 5AM Praise, Mike McCoy, Gerald Hinton and Anointed Praise as some of its clients. A poster named “Mischa” also chimed in to the same beat. “OMG! I so totally agree wtih ‘tired of the foolishness’. I too am a SAGMA member and started getting emails soliciting my vote from SpiritCo (Henry Harris’ company) to vote for various artist(s); none of which I’d heard of. I immediately thought this had to a conflict of interest.” A number of reports regarding membership abuse are also circulating, highlighted in the editorial from “Tired of this mess,” which mentions how Harris encouraged churches to get their members to join the SAGMA voting assembly in order to get their musicians and/or members on the ballot. Gaines also mentioned SAGMA’s initiation of a 2-for-1 membership discount earlier this year, “such that two individuals were able to join the voting body for the price of one.” Ironically, if this is true - the allowing of non-profit organizations including ministries and churches to thrust their monies into a for-profit organization - these attempts could be investigated later on by the U.S. government for criminal persecution and punishment. Ironically, independents like Phillip Carter remain on the defense regarding the nomination process. Carter has since created a Facebook fan page called the Independent Gospel Artists Alliance page. He issues pointers on how to beat out the major competition as an indie. One of his rules of thumb stated that independents “have to be savvy and persistent and learn the rules to the games that are being played and beat others at their own game”. It’s clear that Carter’s intentions are more slicker than playing a game of chess. Carter is a radio host on Spiritco1's Internet radio station. Christopher Page, one of the newer artists to be nominated in the Best Contemporary Group category and originator of the regional radio tease “Sanctified Slide,” is also becoming more and more vocal with his disgust over Gaines’ grassroots campaign. “I...really do not agree with the negative tone and attacks directed at anyone. No one should challenge another person’s relationship with Christ based on their opinion.” Reportedly, Page nor any of the SpiritCo1-related nominees have yet to speak about their services and relations with Harris’s media firm. SpiritCo1, Harris’s firm, is also nominated for Best Internet Radio station. To better understand the process on how the Stellar Awards’ tick, one should look at how the membership criteria has evolved over time. In recent years, the voting body has opened up their membership to include non-professionals “who are not actively working in the gospel music industry.” Currently, membership fees are only $85 per year. An online petition created by EJ Gaines, which also tags his original open letter to the SAGMA authority, has now been made available online for concerned gospel lovers to sign. If you are interested in signing the petition, please visit: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/sagma.
OTHER VALUABLE RESOURCES TO LOOK INTO:
|
