Dal student picks up ECMA

Chelsea Nisbett picks an ECMA for gospel recording of the year.

Chelsea Nisbett doesn’t remember how she got on the stage. But somehow she did – fumbling through her thanks and making it back to her seat, her legs rubbery and her heart pounding.

“Before the award, I remember sitting there, waiting and giving myself a little pep talk – ‘It’s OK if you don’t win.’ ‘It’s OK, your family and friends will still love you,’” she recalls.

“I don’t know how I got there, but I do have moments of clarity,” she continues with a laugh. “I distinctly remember looking out at the audience, through the lights, and seeing all these smiling faces and a couple of people I knew.”

The Dalhousie student picked up the East Coast Music Award for gospel recording of the year for her debut CD, New Beginnings. She was also nominated for African-Canadian recording of the year; that trophy went to Jamie Sparks for It’s the Music.

Even if she hadn’t won, attending the ECMAs in Fredericton will always be a highlight for the 21-year-old student from Sackville, N.S. Along with her band, she played a few shows and even performed at Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton on Sunday morning. Stunning in a forest-green dress she found at Frenchy’s, she also presented a few awards on stage – just don’t ask her which ones.

“It’s a wonderful blur,” she says.

Another winner in Fredericton was Dalhousie alumna Rose Cousins, who won female solo recording of the year for her CD, If You Were For Me. East-coast legends The Rankin Family (of which Dalhousie law grad Raylene Rankin and former Dal student Molly Rankin are members) received two honours: one for DVD of the year for Back Stage Pass and roots/traditional recording of the year for Reunion.

For the first time in more than a decade, the awards show wasn’t broadcast live nationally by CBC-TV. Facing stiff competition from the Grammy Awards, the CBC decided on a different format this year for the East Coast extravaganza. It will air an hour-long, condensed version of the awards’ performances on Sunday, March 2, with host Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies.