BMI Christian Music Awards Reveal 'Glory Defined' as Song of the Year; Mark Hall Crowned Top Songwriter; Four Share Publisher Prize.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Performing rights organization BMI saluted the writers and publishers of the past year's most performed Christian songs during the BMI Christian Music Awards tonight, with highest honors reserved for Building 429's "Glory Defined" as Song of the Year and Mark Hall as Songwriter of the Year.

Senior Vice President Phil Graham, Vice President Paul Corbin and Director Joyce Rice of BMI's Writer/Publisher Relations department presented BMI Citations of Achievement to 22 songs in five categories: AC (Adult Contemporary), CHR (Christian Hit Radio), Contemporary/Traditional Gospel, Rock and Southern Gospel.

Staged at the company's Music Row offices, the ceremonies featured special performances by Casting Crowns, Dottie Peoples, Legacy Five and George Rowe for the crowd of 250 writers, artists, and executives.

Jim Cooper and Jason Roy won the BMI Crystal for Most Performed Christian Song of the Year as writers of "Glory Defined." Published by Dayspring Music LLC, "Glory Defined" was recorded by Building 429 on their debut album Space In Between Us (Word Records). Roy is front man/guitarist and Cooper is producer of the group. "Glory Defined" was recognized for AC and CHR airplay.

Mark Hall, lead singer of Casting Crowns, earned the title of BMI Christian Songwriter of the Year by collecting four BMI Citations of Achievement for writing "If We Are the Body" and "Who Am I," each included in the AC and CHR categories. Both songs are from Casting Crowns' self-titled, platinum debut on Beach Street/Reunion Records.

In addition to Roy and Cooper, songwriters collecting two Citations each were Aaron Sprinkle in the Rock category ("Rawkfist" and "Sea of Faces") and AC-CHR winners Marc Byrd ("God of Wonders"), Kenny Greenberg ("More") and Brendan Graham (IMRO) ("You Raise Me Up").

Other 2005 BMI award-winning songwriter/artists were rockers Pillar, John Cooper of Skillet, Michael Tait & Chad Chapin of Tait, and Thousand Foot Krutch; urban stars Fred Hammond and Keith "Wonderboy" Johnson; and Southern Gospel voices Gerald Crabb, Wayne Haun, Annie McRae and Rodney Griffin of Greater Vision.

The ceremony also announced the Publisher of the Year, which was a four-way tie among Christian Taylor Music, Club Zoo Music, Inc., SWECS Music and Songs of Greater Vision. The award is determined by the highest percentage of copyright ownership in award songs.

Club Zoo Music, Inc. (owned by Franklin Miller and Sawyer Brown's Mark Miller) and SWECS Music (owned by three-time BMI Christian Songwriter of the Year Steven Curtis Chapman) collected the honor for publishing the Casting Crowns hits "If We Are the Body" and "Who Am I."

Two Southern Gospel companies also accepted the accolade: Christian Taylor Music (owned by Dottie Miller) with "I Wish I Could Have Been There," "If It Had Not Been the Lord" and "Places To Go, People To See"; and Songs of Greater Vision (owned by Greater Vision group members Rodney Griffin & Gerald Wolfe) with "He Is To Me" and "Just Ask."

About BMI:

Now marking its 65th year in business, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works from around the world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents.

BMI's Citation of Achievement performance certificates are given annually in recognition of popularity in the field of popular music, as measured by feature broadcast performances on American radio and television; this year's Christian Music Awards eligibility period ran January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

A complete list of the BMI Christian Music Awards winners is included on BMI.com. High resolution photos will be available at http://press.bmi.com. To request access to the press site, please contact [e-mail].