The industry's song of the year is about a Bible nobody opens
The Gospel Music Association handed out its 57th Dove Awards at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Tuesday 6 October, with Tauren Wells hosting for the fourth year running. Song of the Year went to "Dusty Bibles", written by Josiah Queen with Zac Lawson, Dylan Thomas and John Michael Howell.
Look at what that song is about. Not a mountaintop, not a stadium. Bibles going quietly dusty while the phone stays charged. Queen posted that he "wrote this one after doomscrolling for an hour" and called it "the most honest song I've ever dropped." It came out in June last year, got to number three on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs, scraped the Hot 100 at ninety-two, and went Gold in both the United States and Brazil.
So a room full of professional worship writers handed its biggest writing prize to a song about spiritual boredom and too much screen time. That is a more interesting result than any of the night's trophies. The same generation filled a Miami arena last month and queued for baptism outside it.
Phil Wickham had the night otherwise. He won Artist of the Year and Worship Album of the Year for Song of the Saints. Brandon Lake took Songwriter of the Year in the artist category and Jacob Sooter won it in the non-artist category. Jamie MacDonald was named New Artist of the Year.
He went in with nine nominations. Brandon Lake had eight, CeCe Winans seven and Josiah Queen six. Steven Furtick, who pastors Elevation Church, appeared in eleven categories as a co-writer, which is a reminder that a lot of what a congregation sings on a Sunday morning is written by a small number of people.
The gospel categories were where it got interesting
Tasha Cobbs Leonard won twice. Her album TASHA took Contemporary Gospel Album, and "Church", which she cut with John Legend, won Traditional Gospel Recorded Song. A John Legend feature winning a traditional gospel award is not something that happens every year.
CeCe Winans won Gospel Worship Recorded Song for "More Than This" with Todd Dulaney. Hulvey's COULD BE TONIGHT won Rap and Hip Hop Album. The rap song award went to "ROB HELL" by indie tribe, nobigdyl. and Torey D'Shaun, featuring Jon Keith. Jonathan McReynolds and Jamal Roberts won Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song for "Still".
One film award
David, the animated feature from Angel Studios, won Feature Film of the Year.
An awards night is an industry voting on itself, and the Doves are no different. But the people voting sell records to a generation that mostly cannot keep a devotional habit running for a fortnight, and this year they said so out loud and gave it a trophy.
Sources
- 2026 Dove Awards: Phil Wickham, Josiah Queen among winners, The Christian Post
- 2026 GMA Dove Awards: full winners list, Worship Chronicle
- Dusty Bibles: release, themes and chart history, Wikipedia
- Josiah Queen's Mt. Zion tops Christian Albums chart, Billboard
- Dove Week 2026: see the schedule, Gospel Music Association
5Talents
Written by the 5Talents editorial desk.