Platinum-selling Christian band Casting Crowns took home their first American Music Award this past weekend, winning in the category of Contemporary Inspirational Artist of the Year.

The Atlanta-based group garnered the win on their third consecutive nomination for the award, beating out fellow Christian music artists Jeremy Camp and tobyMac in the AMA's first ever publicly voted awards ceremony.

"This is an incredible honor! Wow, an American Music Award; this is voted on by our fans so it's very special to us," lead singer Mark Hall noted during the group's acceptance speech. "We're both humbled and honored to represent Christian music and its fans tonight."

While the first AMA for Casting Crowns, the award comes as an addition to the group's collection, which includes a Grammy and multiple Dove awards, including the Dove for "Group of the Year," which the band has won for the last three years.

In other milestones, Casting Crowns' latest release, The Altar and The Door, went RIAA certified gold last week, making it the group's fourth consecutive record to reach such an accomplishment. The album sold over 500,000 units in just 10 weeks of release, making it the fastest-selling Casting Crowns album to date, as well as the current No. 1 selling Christian music title of the year.

The group is currently in the middle of a promotional tour for The Altar and the Door, which will be hitting venues in Georgia and Florida for the Thanksgiving weekend. Details on the tour can be found at www.castingcrowns.com.


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