Carrie Underwood has added yet another award to her collection, but this time it’s not for her country singing roots. The CMA Entertainer of the Year nominee, who rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of American Idol in 2005, recently received some recognition for “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” her collaboration with gospel singer CeCe Winans from her album My Savoir. Underwood and Winans won the 2021 Gospel Music Association Dove Award for Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year.
The Gospel Music Association announced this year’s Dove Award winners on Oct. 22. The awards, which have taken place annually since 1969, honor outstanding achievements and excellence in Christian and Gospel Music. Reacting to her win, Underwood wrote on social media, “thank you, [Gospel Music Association]!” She went on to state that recording the gospel hymn with Winans “was a highlight of my career and she is truly one of my biggest inspirations. Congratulations on your huge night, CeCe!”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Opening up about the collaboration back in February, Underwood admitted that she “always get really nervous about asking people to come sing with me.” Winans shared that getting the opportunity to collaborate with Underwood was “awesome.” “I’ve been a fan of hers, I think she’s an incredible vocalist,” she said. “To hear her sing ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’ really just brought it all alive. So I’m excited and you’re gonna be blessed.” Underwood said “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is “another song that is vocally big, but it doesn’t start out that way. I love the build in the song.”
“The lyrics, it’s like, ‘God, you are so good to me. I woke up today. I’m still breathing, I’m still walking, I’m still singing, I still get to see my kids,’” she continued. “Every single one of those things are things that we take for granted.” The Grammy winner added that she had previously wanted Winans to come in and work on the project and was “trying to figure out the game plan.”
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is a Christian hymn that was written by Thomas Chisholm with music composed by William M. Runyan in Baldwin City, Kansas. Chisholm wrote a poem about God’s faithfulness in 1923 and sent it to Runyan, who set it to music. Underwood recruited Winans to collaborate with her on a cover of the song for her most recent album My Savoir, a 13-track album of gospel hymns. The album was released in March debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country chart, marking Underwood’s ninth consecutive release to do so and extending her record as the only artist to accomplish that feat with all nine of her album releases from the beginning of her career. Other tracks on the album include “Jesus Loves Me (Instrumental),” “Just As I Am,” and “How Great Thou Art.”
