Grammy Award for Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance
# Grammy Award for Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for solo, duo/groups or collaborative (vocal or instrumental) gospel or Contemporary Christian music (CCM) and its subgenres' recordings and is limited to singles or tracks only.

This award was first handed out in 1968 under the name of Best Gospel Performance and was intended for albums only.

In 1971 the award was renamed to Best Gospel Performance (other than soul gospel), including both singles and albums, and ran until 1978 when the award was divided into two new awards, the Grammy Awards for Best Gospel Performance, Traditional and Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary.

The category was then revived in 2005 and it was known once again under the name of Best Gospel Performance. In 2012, following a major overhaul of the Grammy categories, this award was renamed as Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance which was eligible for all subgenres in the gospel/Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) field.

From 2015, due to a restructuring of the Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music category field, this category will merge with the Best Contemporary Christian Music Song to create the new Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song category, which will recognize both performers and songwriters of Contemporary Christian Music songs (Gospel performances will now fall under the Best Gospel Performance/Song category). According to the Grammy committee, "changes to the field were made in the interest of clarifying the criteria, representing the current culture and creative DNA of the gospel and Contemporary Christian Music communities, and better reflecting the diversity and authenticity of today's gospel music industry".

The Blackwood Brothers hold the record for most awards in this category with four wins, two of them alongside Porter Wagoner. They also hold the record for most nominations, with seven. Two-time winners include Porter Wagoner, The Oak Ridge Boys, Karen Clark Sheard and CeCe Winans.

## Recipients

| Year | Winning artist | Work | Other nominees |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1968 | Porter Wagoner & The Blackwood Brothers Quartet | More Grand Old Gospel | Happy Goodman Family – Good 'n' Happy Oak Ridge Boys – Oak Ridge Boys Singing Rambos – Singing Rambos, Gospel Ballads The Blackwood Brothers Quartet – The Blackwood Brothers Quartet Sings for Joy |
| 1969 | Happy Goodman Family | The Happy Gospel of the Happy Goodmans | — |
| 1970 | Porter Wagoner & The Blackwood Brothers Quartet | In Gospel Country | Oak Ridge Boys – It's Happening LeFevres – The Best Is Yet To Come Happy Goodman Family – This Happy House Singing Rambos – This Is My Valley |
| 1971 | Oak Ridge Boys | Talk About the Good Times | Thrasher Brothers – Fantastic Thrashers at Fantastic Caverns LeFevres – Moving Up Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters – Talk About the Good Times Florida Boys – The Many Moods of the Florida Boys |
| 1972 | Charley Pride | Let Me Live | Blackwood Brothers – He's Still King of Kings Oak Ridge Boys – Jesus Christ, What a Man Hovie Lister & The Statesmen- Put Your Hand in the Hand Imperials – Time to Get It Together |
| 1973 | Blackwood Brothers | L-O-V-E | Thrasher Brothers – America Sings Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters – By Your Request Oak Ridge Boys – Light Rambos – Soul in the Family |
| 1974 | Blackwood Brothers | Release Me (from My Sin) | Statesmen – I Believe in Jesus Andrae Crouch – Just Andrae The Imperials – Live Oak Ridge Boys – Street Gospel |
| 1975 | Oak Ridge Boys | The Baptism of Jesse Taylor | |
| 1976 | The Imperials | No Shortage | Connie Smith – Connie Smith Sings Hank Williams Gospel Happy Goodman Family – Happy Goodman Family Hour Statler Brothers – Holy Bible – New Testament Johnny Cash – Johnny Cash Sings Precious Memories |
| 1977 | Oak Ridge Boys | Where the Soul Never Dies | The Speers – Between the Cross and Heaven (There's a Whole Lot of Living Going On) Florida Boys – Here They Come The Imperials – Just Because Blackwood Brothers – Learning to Lean |
| 2005 | Ray Charles & Gladys Knight | "Heaven Help Us All" | Shirley Caesar and Ann Nesby — "The Stone" Dr. John and Mavis Staples — "Lay My Burden Down" Fred Hammond — "Celebrate (He Lives)" Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama — "There Will Be a Light" |
| 2006 | CeCe Winans | "Pray" | Yolanda Adams — "Be Blessed" Kirk Franklin — "Looking For You" Donnie McClurkin — "I Call You Faithful" Hezekiah Walker & Love Fellowship Choir — "Lift Him Up" |
| 2007 | Yolanda Adams | "Victory" | Israel & New Breed — "Not Forgotten" Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers — "The Blessing Of Abraham" Chris Tomlin — "Made To Worship" Tye Tribbett — "Victory" |
| 2008 (tie) | The Clark Sisters Aretha Franklin & Mary J. Blige United States | "Blessed & Highly Favored" "Never Gonna Break My Faith" | Casting Crowns — "East To West" Israel & New Breed featuring T-Bone — "With Long Life" CeCe Winans — "He Set My Life To Music" |
| 2009 | Mary Mary | "Get Up" | Kim Burrell, Rance Allen, Bebe Winans, Mariah Carey and Hezekiah Walker's Love Fellowship Tabernacle Church Choir — "I Understand" Casting Crowns — "East to West" Take 6 — "Shall We Gather at the River" CeCe Winans — "Waging War" |
| 2010 | Donnie McClurkin featuring Karen Clark Sheard | "Wait On The Lord" | Francesca Battistelli — "Free To Be Me" Heather Headley featuring Smokie Norful — "Jesus Is Love" Jonny Lang with Fisk Jubilee Singers — "I Believe" Third Day featuring Lacey Mosley — "Born Again" |
| 2011 | BeBe and CeCe Winans | "Grace" | Forever Jones — "He Wants It All" Israel Houghton — "You Hold My World" VaShawn Mitchell — "Nobody Greater" Kirk Whalum & Lalah Hathaway — "He's Been Just That Good" |
| 2012 | Le'Andria Johnson | "Jesus" | Steven Curtis Chapman — "Do Everything" Natalie Grant — "Alive (Mary Magdalene)" Brandon Heath — "Your Love" Chris Tomlin — "I Lift My Hands" |
| 2013 | Matt Redman | "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)" | Casting Crowns — "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" Tamela Mann — "Take Me to the King" Mary Mary — "Go Get It" Marvin Sapp — "I Win" |
| 2014 | Tasha Cobbs | Break Every Chain (Live) | Natalie Grant - Hurricane Matt Maher - Lord, I Need You Mandisa - Overcomer Tye Tribbett - If He Did It Before...Same God (Live) |
