Platinum-selling band Casting Crowns celebrates its first GRAMMY nomination as announced Thursday by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) at a press conference in New York. The band picks up the nod for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album for its Gold-certified sophomore album Lifesong.

The seven-piece youth ministry band is led by youth pastor Mark Hall.

Hall noted, “It’s awesome to be listed alongside some of our favorite artists and it’s great to be a part of what God is doing.”

The GRAMMY-nominated album Lifesong debuted in August at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart, one of only two Christian artists without crossover radio airplay to break the Top 10 on the Billboard chart in ten years. Last month, Casting Crowns was a “Favorite Artist” nominee in the Contemporary Inspirational category at the 33rd Annual American Music Awards.

The 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at Staples Center in Los Angeles and once again will be broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

Casting Crowns, originally formed as a youth ministry worship band, has sold more than 1.9 million albums, even while band members have remained active in youth ministry at local churches in the Atlanta area. The band was named this year’s GMA “Group of the Year,” and lead singer Mark Hall was named GMA’s “Songwriter of the Year” for the second consecutive year as well as BMI’s 2005 “Songwriter of the Year.” The band recently wrapped the 38-city fall leg of its highly-successful “Lifesong Tour,” which sold out venues nationwide.

In 2004, Casting Crowns’ debut album quickly earned the highest first-week sales of any debut artist on Nielsen SoundScan Christian market sales chart for the year, eventually selling more than 1 million units. The project’s three radio singles, “If We Are The Body,” “Who Am I,” and “Voice of Truth” all spent multiple weeks at No. 1 on numerous charts, the third of which spent a record-breaking 13 weeks at No. 1. For the year 2004, Casting Crowns was the most played artist on all Christian radio formats combined, and performed to more than 1 million people in concert.

Press Release