Just like last year’s Ayiesha Woods, my favorite Contemporary Christian act for this year has racked up a Grammy Award nomination for Favorite Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. American Idol finalist Mandisa Hundley has been recognized for her spectacular debut album, True Beauty.

She’s up against some pretty stiff competition: aside from hugely popular band Casting Crowns (The Altar and the Door), she’s also competing against perennial Christian favorite Michael W. Smith (Stand), critically acclaimed hiphop gospel producer Kirk TobyMac (Portable Sounds), and tremendously talented worship leader Israel Houghton and his group, New Breed (Another Level).

It’s a great field - I love all the nominees - but, of course, I hope the men cancel each other out and Mandisa takes home the Grammy. Hahaha! (It was a really tough field, and some of the artists who I thought were deserved the Grammy nomination for favorite pop/contemporary gospel didn’t make it, including Jeremy Camp’s brilliant Beyond Measure, Reliant K’s Five Score and Seven Years Ago, or Chris Tomlin’s See The Morning. I wouldn’t remove anyone from the current Grammy list, so maybe it’s best to keep it this way. Shame, though: Camp really deserved a nod.)

Mandisa’s True Beauty also finishes at #43 on the Top Christian albums chart for the year, while Only the World, True Beauty’s carrier single, is the 17th biggest Christian song of the year and the 18th biggest Christian AC song of the year. In the latter chart, she’s the highest ranked solo female artist; in the former chart, she’s a couple of notches behind Sparrow labelmate Britt Nicole with You.

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