GMC's Gospel Dream Winner is ...
ATLANTA, July 30 /
Christian Newswire/ -- 32-year-old bilingual worship leader from Boca Raton, FL Tony LeBron beat out thousands of entries to win the fourth season of the American Idol®-style talent search TV series Gospel Dream last night on the Gospel Music Channel (GMC) television network (
www.gospelmusicchannel.com).
LeBron was chosen over the other finalists Robert Mauti, 26 of Nashville, TN, and NeVar Massey, 34 from Hampton, GA in the dramatic season finale. The semi-finals and finale will be seen back-to-back on GMC this Saturday night, August 1 at 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., respectively. The finale will also encore Sunday, August 2 (8:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.) GMC will present a Gospel Dream Season Four Marathon on Saturday, August 8 beginning at 8:00 am and again at 8:00 p.m. All times Eastern.
The finale opened with a memorable performance by Gospel Dream season three winner Melinda Watts, who sang "There Will Come a Day" from her debut album called People Get Ready, out this week on Razor & Tie Records. The theme of the show's fourth season was The Greatest Inspirational Songs of All Time and the final three contestants then delivered both classics as well as mainstream hits last night. Massey sang Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" and "How Great Is Our God." Mauti performed "Give Me Jesus" and the classic "I'll Take You There." But it was LeBron's stunning, dual-language performances of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" and "I Surrender All" that catapulted him to the crown.
The judges who tapped LeBron as the winner were Michelle Williams from the GRAMMY- winning group "Destiny's Child"; one of Gospel music's most prolific talents, J. Moss; and music industry executive Mitchell Solarek. American Idol® alumnae Kimberley Locke co-hosted the show along with Mike Kasem ("MTV's Top 20 Video Countdown" "American Top 10").
LeBron, born in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, auditioned for Gospel Dream in Orlando and lives in Boca Raton where he is the Worship Leader and Director of the Young Adults Group at the Boca Raton Community Church. Fluent in both Spanish and English, LeBron's seemingly effortless transitions between both languages within the same songs helped drive him to the top of the competition. He receives record and music video exposure, among other prizes, as this season's winner.
Gospel Dream invited solo artists between the ages of 16-40, from all genres of Gospel/Christian music styles, including traditional, rock, pop, country and soul to enter. The Gospel Dream series was created by Elvin Ross, who is also the series' executive producer and musical director.
Gospel Music Channel is the fastest-growing network in television and can be seen in 45 million homes on various cable systems around the country, on DIRECTV on channel 338 and on Verizon FiOS on channel 224.
