Christ-like Soldiers nominated for youth gospel award in Atlanta

Christ-like Soldiers (CLS), a local duo who spreads the message of Christ through their music, has been nominated for an award in the Rap Group category of the Youth Gospel Entertainment Awards (YGEA) but needs fans to get online and vote.

When The Scene spoke with the soldiers, Joshua Benn and Sheldon McKinnon, last July and earlier this year in June they were passionate about their cause; that passion has only become more intense for these young men.

“We’ve received a nomination under the category “Rap Group” of the year for our debut song and video entitled “C.L.S Doing Our Best” by YGEA in Atlanta, Georgia,” an enthusiastic Benn told The Scene earlier this week.

On August 5 polls were opened on www.ygea.net/vote for fans to vote for their favourite group.  CLS has been visiting local churches and attending events in an effort to promote their nomination and gain votes. Benn explained that since the nomination isn’t of a local origin they need online votes of supporters locally. The voting ends on Tuesday and is restricted to one vote per email.

It has been almost three years since CLS began its singing journey and it has since created several artiste accounts online. Its most popular profile is www.myspace.com/sheldonandjoshua.

In addition to creating these profiles the soldiers also send their music to different radio stations like www.live360.com across the world for air time. CLS’s song “Too Blessed To Be Stressed” has been featured on www.live360.com on the same playlist with artistes such as Kirk Franklin.

“It is due to our songs being played on radio stations like these that the nomination committee for the YGEA awards heard it and placed us on the ballot under the category Rap Group of the year for this year’s Award ceremony,” Benn explained.

The Award Ceremony will be held on September 26 following a number of activities starting two days before at the Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. The YGEA is an organization that seeks to recognise the contribution of Christian artistes to the music industry worldwide.