Gen Verde – International Performing Arts Group won the ‘Best Album’ (‘The Way of Peace’) and ‘Best Music Video’ (‘We Choose Peace’) categories in the first ever Catholic Music Awards.
The all-female group made up of 19 artists from 13 countries was nominated in the Italian categories for ‘Best Album’, ‘Best Band or Duo’, ‘Best Song’, and in the English category: ‘Best Music Video’, along with other well-known artists and groups such as Matt Maher, The Sun, Fr Rob Galea, Reale, Francesca LaRosa, Ziza Fernandes, and many others, presented by the 3 times Emmy winner, Azucena Cierco, together with singer-songwriter, Priscila Ángel, and Maity Interiano, journalist.
What are the Catholic Music Awards?
The Catholic Music Awards are a new international event that aims to recognize and promote Catholic music and the artists who create it. They wish to highlight and encourage musicians and their work within the Catholic community, celebrating the creativity of composers, singers, musicians, producers and sound engineers who contribute to evangelization through music.
The goal of the Catholic Music Awards is to unite faith and culture, supporting the Church’s evangelizing mission through music, while fostering an international network of professionals and enthusiasts, open to exchange and collaboration.
When and where were the Catholic Music Awards held?
The awards event took place on Sunday, July 27, in the Auditorium Conciliazione, in Rome, at the start of the Youth’s Jubilee. During the evening, the awards ceremony opened with a live performance by Gen Verde of their song We Choose Peace.
“It was both an honor and a joy for us to take part in this event, and we are deeply grateful for the awards we received. They serve as a meaningful source of encouragement and support after many years of tireless work—work that demands great energy, as it goes far beyond simply creating music. For us, it’s about living authentically, putting into practice the very values we express on stage, and allowing our music to reflect the life we strive to live”, words of Nancy Uelmen (singer and composer from the United States).
On this note, Adriana Martins (a singer from Brazil) adds, “This effort is rewarded by the fruits we witness—not only in the young people we work with during our artistic workshops, but also in the diverse audiences we encounter at our concerts, events, choral workshops, sung Masses, and beyond”.
As Gen Verde, we hope that this edition of the awards will be the first of many and that it will grow in visibility and significance, reaching ever wider audiences. Our wish is for more and more people to discover the many bands and artists who use music as a powerful tool for evangelization—to communicate faith, peace, dialogue, forgiveness, unity, empathy, inclusion, justice… in short, to share the message of the Gospel through music!
To conclude, we would like to thank all those who made these awards possible, especially Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, creator of the event; Ricardo Grzona, President of the Ramón Pané Foundation; also the Dicastery for Communication; the Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis; the Dicastery for Evangelisation; and so many who worked with such dedication and passion.
