St. Louis went to church in a big way on Tuesday night as a sellout 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.
For the third consecutive year, the Scottrade Center was transformed into a large house of worship as the fans were treated to performances by gospel giants Martin Lawrence and CeCe Winans, who were the co-hosts of the event, and Marvin Sapp and Hezekiah Walker, who were also judges for the competition.
The stars performed some of their biggest songs, but the night belonged to the church choirs, who were competing for 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 tour of the United States in search of 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 partipate.
“They are the real A-List performers,” said CeCe Winans. “I love the choirs. They are my favorites. You have such incredible talent in the choirs. I have been truly blessed to go around the country and see them perform.”
Said Donald Lawrence, “These are the people who are holding it down every Sunday in church while we are on the road.”
The evening began 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 showtime as the church choirs did not disappoint as each of the seven came to the stage and delivered one spirit-filled performance after another, keeping the sellout 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 Voices of Life choir had only eight members, which 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 “Holy Ghost Power,” which was recorded by the Chicago Mass Choir in 2001. Being the smallest choir and the lead-off act in front of a sellout crowd brought greater inspiraton to the choir as they blended together a group of talented lead singers into a formidable force.
“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 Handerson 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 little 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. 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 and the $10,000 prize, the V-Cast People’s Choice Award and the $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 spirtually, 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 were 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 local radio personality Dwight Stone joined the seven competing choirs and the sellout crowd in the audience to perform Lawrence’s 2009 hit song “Back II Eden.”
