June 24, 2002

BMI Christian Music Awards Proclaim Dottie Peoples’s ‘Testify’ Song of the Year

BMI saluted the writers and publishers of the past year’s most performed Christian songs during the BMI Christian Music Awards last night, with highest honors reserved for Dottie Peoples’s “Testify,” songwriter/publisher Toby McKeehan, Achtober Songs, and EMI Christian Music Publishing. Paul Corbin, Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville, and Joyce Rice, Director, Writer/Publisher Relations, Nashville, handed out the Citations of Achievement recognizing 28 songs among six categories, with the presentation culminating in the announcements of Christian Song, Songwriter, and Publisher of the Year (including all genres).

Onstage at BMI Nashville are BMI's Paul Corbin, Dottie Peoples, Toby McKeehan and BMI's Joyce Rice. photo by Richard Crichton

Staged at the company’s Music Row offices, the event spotlighted the top songs in the Adult Contemporary, Christian Hit Radio, Inspirational, Rock, Southern Gospel and Urban Gospel categories. Special performances were given by Dottie Peoples, Mark Schultz, and the quartet CrossWay for the crowd of two hundred writers, artists, and executives.

Dottie Peoples, writer of song of the year

Toby McKeehan, songwriter of the year

Dottie Peoples earned the BMI Crystal for Most Performed Christian Song of the Year as writer and publisher of “Testify." Published through Dottie Peoples Publishing and International Atlanta Music Company, “Testify” was recorded by The Talley Trio for their Southern Gospel album Testament, as well as by Peoples for her album God Can and God Will.

With three award songs, Toby McKeehan led all 38 writers to repeat as BMI Christian Songwriter Of The Year (he shared the 2001 honor with Steven Curtis Chapman). McKeehan, who records for Forefront Records as tobyMac and with Michael Tait and Kevin Max as dc talk, was cited for writing “All You Got” (AC & CHR), “Extreme Days” (Rock) and “Say The Words” (CHR). “All You Got,” recorded by Tait, appeared on both Tait’s Empty album and dc talk’s Solo EP. “Say The Words” was recorded by dc talk on their Intermission album; “Extreme Days” is from tobyMac’s debut solo effort, Momentum.

Songwriters recognized with two Citations each were Chris Eaton [PRS] (“Adore” and “Lift Me Up”) and Dottie Peoples (“Show Up and Show Out” plus “Testify”).

Placing three songs each on the most performed list, Achtober Songs and EMI Christian Music Publishing (through its companies River Oaks Music Company and Sparrow Song) shared the title of BMI Christian Publisher of the Year. As owner of Achtober songs, Toby McKeehan collected a second crystal obelisk for publishing his BMI Award songs. Casey McGinty and Chad Segura accepted on behalf of EMI Christian Music Publishing; this is EMI’s second consecutive victory.

Additional multiple award publishers were Boisseau Music Publishing, Dayspring Music, Dottie Peoples Publishing, International Atlanta Music Company, Lilly Mack Music, S. G. O. Music Publishing, Ltd., and Sony/ATV Songs LLC.

BMI’s Citations of Achievement are given in recognition of popularity in the field of Christian music, as measured by feature broadcast performances on American radio and television. The 2002 Christian Music Awards eligibility period ran January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2001.