The finalists for the 2011 Billboard Music Awards have released. Chris Tomlin, tobyMac and Mercy Me lead the way among Christian artists with 3 nominations.each.

The winners will be announced live on the Billboard Awards Show that is scheduled to air Sunday, May 22nd on ABC.

The 2011 Billboard Music Awards finalists for the Christian music categories are:

Top Christian Album:
MercyMe — “The Generous Mr. Lovewell”
Skillet — “Awake”
tobyMac — “Tonight”
Chris Tomlin – “And If Our God is For Us”
Various Artists — “WOW Hits 2011″

Top Christian Album:
MercyMe — “The Generous Mr. Lovewell”
Skillet — “Awake”
tobyMac — “Tonight”
Chris Tomlin — “And If Our God is For Us”
Various Artists — “WOW Hits 2011″

Top Christian Song:
Kris Allen — “Live Like We’re Dying”
MercyMe — “All Of Creation”
Sanctus Real — “Lead Me”
tobyMac — “Get Back Up”
Chris Tomlin — “Our God”

Who do you think should win?

Best Gospel Performance
Forever Jones-He Wants It All
VaShawn Mitchell-Nobody Greater
Kirk Whalum & Lalah Hathaway-He’s Been Just That Good
Israel Houghton-You Hold My World
BeBe & CeCe Winans-Grace

Best Gospel Song
Beautiful Things-Lisa Gungor & Michael Gungor, songwriters (Gungor)
Better Than Hallelujah-Sarah Hart & Chapin Hartford, songwriters (Amy Grant)
It’s What I Do-Jerry Peters & Kirk Whalum, songwriters (Kirk Whalum & Lalah Hathaway)
Our God-Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman, Jesse Reeves & Chris Tomlin, songwriters (Chris Tomlin)
Return to Sender-Gordon Kennedy, songwriter (Ricky Skaggs)

Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album
Church Music-David Crowder Band
For Those That Wait-Fireflight
Beautiful Things-Gungor
Rehab-Lecrae
Hello Hurricane-Switchfoot

Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album
Beauty Will Rise-Steven Curtis Chapman
Love God. Love People.-Israel Houghton
Pieces Of A Real Hart-Sanctus Real
Mosaic-Ricky Skaggs
Tonight-TobyMac

Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album
Times Like These-Austins Bridge
The Reason-Diamond Rio
Expecting Good Things-Jeff & Sheri Easter
Journey On-Ty Herndon
Live At Oak Tree: Karen Peck & New River-Karen Peck & New River

Best Traditional Gospel Album
The Experience-Vanessa Bell Armstrong
A City Called Heaven-Shirley Caesar
Downtown Church-Patty Griffin
Here I Am-Marvin Sapp
All In One-Karen Clark Sheard

Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album
Get Ready-Forever Jones
Love Unstoppable-Fred Hammond
Triumphant-VaShawn Mitchell
Aaron Sledge-Aaron Sledge
Still-BeBe & CeCe Winans

So, there you have it. What do you think about the nominatins?

[img credit: treehugger.com]

In the video you will see the story about how Bowen has been battling a heart defect over the last few months. He was born on Sept. 9 and he is finally coming home.

If you want to find out more news and information about Bowen, visit http://www.bowensheart.com

On the surface, the music is high quality. When you hear the guitar, drums and vocals, you won’t be disappointed.

I encourage you to go beyond the music and allow yourself to really hear the lyrics. They really speak to the life of someone who has spent considerable time walking with God. Certain themes like forgiveness, redemption, and allowing God to be in control of your life can be found in many of our lives. This album addresses them in such a personal and real way.

There are two separate editions of this album, a standard edition and a deluxe edition. The deluxe edition features five acoustic tracks and and a digital booklet. The acoustic tracks are absolutely my favorite songs on the entire album. I can’t get the acoustic version of “Forgiven” out of my head.

Sanctus Real is offering their fans the opportunity to download a free song from the new album.  Anyone can immediately receive the brand new song, “These Things Take Time,” by re-tweeting or posting the link http://www.tweematic.com/sanctusreal/ on their facebook pages.

You can get the standard or deluxe edition of Pieces of A Real Heart by Sanctus Real on iTunes or Amazon.com. Sanctus Real also has a lot of concerts coming up this Spring. For concert information, go to www.sanctusreal.com