Singing News Fan Awards Top Ten Finalists

Top ten finalists for the Singing News Fan Awards were announced yesterday. A complete list can be seen here.

Looking over the lists it seems that most of the top 10 nominations this year are the same as last year. Most of the categories only have one or two differences in the nominations from 2011 with the exception of the Horizon categories and Young Artist where winners change every year.

I'll confess I was one of those people who in September was tired of seeing the same people win again. So my nominations this year had no one who won last year on it. Not because I didn't like those artists, but just because I would have no right to complain about the awards being the same if I voted for the same people. I'm not sure how my final ballot will turn out, but I really wanted to see nominations vary this year.

The biggest surprises for me came in the Album category. I expected to see "Part of the Family" by the Collingsworth Family and "Reach Out" by Karen Peck and New River. I also thought that Jason Crabb's "The Song Lives On" might be included. All three of these earned Dove nominations. In fact, none of the Dove nominated Southern Gospel albums were nominated. I don't think that these are necessarily predictors of one another, but at least last year there was some overlap.

What do you think? Were there any surprises for you? Do you think awards will be different this year or will it be pretty predictable again?

Edit: Daniel Mount has a great breakdown comparing this year and last year's nominations!