The city of St. Louis went to church in a big way on last night (Tues., Oct. 5) as a sold out crowd turned out at the Scottrade Center for the third annual Verizon Wireless How Sweet the Sound gospel choir competition.
An estimated crowd of more than 11,000 were in attendance for the gospel music extravaganza which featured several of the industry’s biggest stars sharing the stage with seven of the top community church choirs from the St. Louis area and parts of the Midwest region.
Gospel giants Donald Lawrence and CeCe Winans served as co-hosts of the event, while Marvin Sapp and Hezekiah Walker judged for the competition.
The stars performed some of their biggest songs, but the night belonged to the church choirs – who were competing for tens of thousands of dollars in prize money as well as a trip to the How Sweet the Sound National Finals.
St. Louis was the 12th stop on the 14-city U.S. tour that searches for the best church choir in the nation. The 14 winners all advance to the national finals, which will be held in Washington D.C. on November 13. The How Sweet the Sound gospel tour was put together to celebrate the community church choirs around the nation. More than 100 church choirs from around the country get the opportunity to participate in the competition.
“These are the people who are holding it down every Sunday in church while we are on the road,” Lawrence said.
The evening kicked off with Lawrence saying the words, “As long as
there’s a Sunday morning church, there is a great church choir.”
From that point, it was show time and the church choirs did not disappoint. All seven came to the stage and delivered one spirit-filled performance after another – keeping the capacity crowd on their feet throughout the three-hour show.
The two big winners of the evening happened to be the smallest and largest contingents in the competition, both of which delivered powerful bookend performances at the beginning and the end of the show.
The winner of the Small Choir competition and the $10,000 prize was the small, yet mighty Voices of Life Choir from the Life Central International Church of God in Christ of St. Louis. The eight member choir was easily the smallest choir that has taken part in the St. Louis region during the past three years.
However, eight was enough as the Voices of Life rocked the Scottrade Center with its powerful rendition of the Chicago Mass Choir’s 2001 classic “Holy Ghost Power.”
Being the smallest choir and the lead-off act in front of a sellout crowd brought greater inspiration to the choir as they blended together a group of talented lead singers into a formidable force that set the tone for a special evening of praise and worship.
“The crowd gave us a lot of energy and emotion,” said choir director
Isaac Hayes. “This is such a great feeling for all of us. I also want to
give thanks to our pastor Dr. Elijah Hankerson III and our co-pastor
Rachel L. Hankerson.”
Choir member Antonio Green added, “We are truly blessed to be here tonight. We’re working towards a new church, so tonight was truly wonderful.”
While the Voices of Life provided the early inspiration, it was the 64-member New Sunny Mount Missionary Baptist Church Chancel Choir that brought the house down with its finale “For Every Mountain” – which ended the competition.
Under the direction of Anita Watkins-Stevens, the choir performed the Kurt Carr Singers’ song beautifully with wonderful singing mixed in with a hint of mime ministry performed by all of the choir members, who wore white gloves.
“Our focus tonight was just on ministering the song,” Watkins-Stevens said. “Before we went out on stage, I told everyone ‘let’s just do that
and go home.”
Not only are they going home, but they are headed to the nation’s capital with $15,000 in prize money to boot. In addition to winning the overall title, New Sunny Mount came away with the overall title of Best Choir in the St. Louis region. They also won the Large Choir competition – which carries a $10,000 prize along with the V-Cast People’s Choice Award and an additional $5,000.
It was the third consecutive year that the New Sunny Mount Chancel Choir has competed in the How Sweet the Sound St. Louis region. They won the competition in 2009 and advanced to the national finals in Detroit.
“It is just as exciting as the first time, but spiritually, it means something different for us,” Watkins-Stevens said. “This does something
for a choir that unifies it in a way that nothing else can.”
How Sweet the Sound has continued to be a fan-friendly event as the fans were able to decide the winner of the People’s Choice Award by texting the number of their favorite choir. Fans could also participate in the singing portion as well with Gospel Karaoke booths set up in the concourse area of the arena. The young people got involved as well as the Youth Gospel Music Conference and Revelation Mime Ministry also performed in the concourse. An artist gallery was also featured, which prominently displayed the art of local artist Cbabi Bayoc.
The other five choirs who participated in the competition included the Voices of Praise from the Memorial Baptist Church in Evansville, Ind., Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis Choir, Tabernacle of Praise Seventh-Day Adventist Church Choir, Voices of St. Alphonsus from the St. Alphonsus Liguori “Rock” Catholic Church and the Rezonate Choir from the Church of the Resurrection in Lenexa, Kan.
At the end of the evening, everyone in the house united as one as Donald
Lawrence, CeCe Winans, Marvin Sapp, Hezekiah Walker and Hallelujah 1600 AM radio personality Dwight Stone joined the seven competing choirs and the
audience to perform Lawrence’s 2009 hit song Back II Eden.
“I love the choirs. They are my favorites,” said Winans, a Grammy-winning gospel artist. “They are the real A-List performers with such incredible talent. I have been truly blessed to go around the country and see them perform.”
