The 40th Annual GMA Dove Awards are almost upon us. These awards are unique because for the first time they are allowing the public to have a voice in voting for the Artist of the Year and New Artist of the Year categories! This year plan to watch the awards Live! on the Gospel Music Channel April 23, at 8pm EST.


So let's look at 2009's Nominees for these two categories:

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Casting Crowns
Steven Curtis Chapman
Fireflight
Marvin Sapp
Third Day
tobyMac
Chris Tomlin

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Addison Road
Francesca Battistelli
Fee
Jonathan Nelson
Remedy Drive
Chris Sligh
Tenth Avenue North

So do you want to participate?

Voting Rules:
1. You may cast only one online and one SMS vote in each category.
2. You may visit the voting page as often as you like. For instance, you can vote for one category now and return to vote for another category later.
3. All votes must be submitted between February 26th and April 23rd 2009, inclusive.
4. All votes are final once cast unless disqualified for some reason.

If this interests you each of the artists you can for are presented below with the voting link, sms information, and links to listen to their music on Myspace if you need to check some of them out before voting:

Doves Online Voting here.

Artist of the Year:
Vote For / Text To / Check Me Out:
Casting Crowns / DOVE CCROWNS to 72648 / Click here.
Steven Curtis Chapman / DOVE SCCHAPMAN to 72648 / Click here.
Fireflight / DOVE FFLIGHT to 72648 / Click here.
Marvin Sapp / DOVE MSAPP to 72648 / Click here.
Third Day / DOVE THIRDDAY to 72648 / Click here.
tobyMac / DOVE TOBYMAC to 72648 / Click here.
Chris Tomlin / DOVE CTOMLIN to 72648 / Click here.

New Artist of the Year:
Vote For / Text To / Check Me Out:
Addison Road / DOVE ADDISON to 72648 / Click here.
Francesca Battistelli / DOVE FRANCESCA to 72648 / Click here.
Fee / DOVE FEE to 72648 / Click here.
Jonathan Nelson / DOVE JNELSON to 72648 / Click here.
Remedy Drive / DOVE REMEDY to 72648 / Click here.
Chris Sligh / DOVE CSLIGH to 72648 / Click here.
Tenth Avenue North / DOVE AVENUE to 72648 / Click here.

If you would like to check out the rest of this year's Nominees and Categories click here.