So what does it really take to win a major gospel competition?

We recently followed ‘Only God Knows’ (OGK), an adult choir that practices out of Emmaus Seventh Day Adventist Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn to this year’s McDonald’s Gospelfest.

OGK, last year’s winners in the adult choir category, demonstrate that winning a gospel competition is more than getting your pitch right, it’s about getting honest with God and others and relentlessly pursuing a heart of worship.

Here’s OGK’s journey from their final rehearsal in Brooklyn to the night of the competition.

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June may be long over, but we’re hardly out of the wedding season. Check out our list of the most popular jams couples groove to after jumping the broom. Did yours make the list?

14. “The Electric Boogie” AKA “The Electric Slide”- Marcia Griffiths
Actually any song that has the word “slide” or “step” in its title can take this spot. And may we add the “Macarena” to this list?

13. “Crazy In Love”- Beyoncé
This fast-paced, high-energy song by Beyoncé featuring hubby Jay-Z was reportedly the first song the couple danced to after their top secret nuptials.

12. “For You”- Keith Lattimore
“Sister, Sister” actress Tia Mowry’s walked down the aisle to Keith Lattimore’s live performance of this song when she tied the knot with “Lincoln Heights” star Cory Hardrict in April 2008.

11. “A Whole New World”- Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle
Think 1992, think Jasmine, think Aladdin and of course that magic carpet ride.

10. “On Bended Knee” -Boyz II Men
Got to love Philly representing Boyz II Men but isn’t this song about trying to get back lost a love?

9. “What a Wonderful World”- Louis Armstrong
A classic by the original king of Queens (Queens, New York that is).

8. “All My Life”-K-Ci & JoJo
Okay so there are a handful songs that are just destined to be wedding songs. This is one of them.

7. “Always and Forever”-Heatwave
Though released over 30 years ago, this tender melody still reverberates in reception halls everywhere.

6. “Ribbon in the Sky”- Stevie Wonder
This satin song was first released by Wonder in 1982 and recently re-recorded a cappella-style by another group of crooners who also made our list, Boyz II Men.

5. “I Will Always Love You”– Whitney Houston
Yes, the lyrics really tug at us all, but it’s an interesting choice for a wedding song considering it’s actually about losing love, not finding it.

4. “Celebration”- Kool and the Gang
This belongs is the category of the “Cha Cha Slide,” “Hot, Hot, Hot” and all those beats that inspire group movement.

3. “Unforgettable”- Nat King and Natalie Cole
Got to admit this timeless number sung by the father-daughter duo is just as unforgettable as its title suggests.

2. “At Last”-Etta James
Didn’t Barack and Michelle Obama dance to this classic about ten times on Inauguration night?

And the song that takes the ten-tired cake is…

1. “Here and Now”-Luther Vandross
For those  incurable romantics among us, here’s the video:

Did we miss any songs? Let us know..

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These days when many singers, even in gospel music, are manufactured, there are still a few platinum voices that never disappoint. Here’s a nod particularly, to the leading ladies of gospel.

These soulful divas can bring the church house down and lead us into uninhibited praise.

Whether they belt out traditional ballads like Pastor Shirley Caesar, or rock contemporary jams like Mary Mary, these gospel queens lead us straight to the throne.

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Did we miss anybody? Tell us who leads you to the throne.

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Hundreds thronged the sidewalk outside the Apollo theater, in a raucous celebration of the musical prodigy that was Michael Jackson.

Hanging above them in the famed theater’s platinum marquee were the surreal words: “In memory of Michael Jackson. A true Apollo legend. 1958-2009”

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Fans shocked at the pop king’s sudden passing sought solace in each other. Strangers drew together and for a few hours on 125th street bonded like family members at an overdue reunion.

Some turned their cars into makeshift DJ booths blasting hits like “Man in the Mirror” and “Billie Jean,” some cried,  some sipped beer, some hawked t-shirts, some burned candles, but most just sang their souls out, and of course rocked the night away.

“I came out here to explode,” said Denine Rodney, 37, a market researcher from Harlem who came to late night fete with her sister. “I came to get my Michael Jackson on!” she said.

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One mourner built a makeshift shrine with candles and pictures of the gloved one outside High Rollers Jewelry store. She donned a black felt fedora and moonwalked for anxious TV crews that lined 125th street.

Between moonwalks she sang and fought through fits of tears. For many like her, the loss was personal.

“I was sitting at home hurt, in pain,” said Denine’s sister, Lisa Rodney, 32.  “It threw me for a loop. He’s part of everyone’s childhood,” she said.

For the generation Xers and Yers  who grew up on Jackson’s music his passing drew pause. It was a moment, not unlike what the assassination of President John F. Kennedy might signify to some, or what the date December 7, 1941, might mean for others.

Renny John, 31, an insurance adjuster,  will always remember what he was doing when he heard the news yesterday evening. He was holding his one-year-old son.

Yonel Severe, 40, was in the Bronx when somebody broke the news to him around 6 p.m. yesterday. “Which Michael?” Severe, an artist had asked in disbelief,  “Our Michael?”

Jackson’s stardom reached Severe as a 13-year-old growing up in Haiti in the early 1980s.

He remembers asking his dad to buy him the iconic blood-red jacket the pop king sported in his   “Thriller” music video.

His father’s prompt response to the request was, “I don’t want you to die, it’s too hot,” explaining it wouldn’t be suitable to wear the leather jacket in Haiti’s soaring temperatures.

“Michael describes an era, a generation,” Severe said looking at the exultant crowd that partied under the  vigilant watch of NYPD officers posted along 125th street and a helicopter that circled above.

“If it weren’t for the police, people would be here for days and days,” Severe said, “We lost our best.”

As he surrendered to the music and the jubilation around him he shouted “He’s not dead! He lives in us!”

And in the height of the outpouring that lasted into the wee morning hours on 125th street,  it certainly seemed true.

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Bebe Winans isn’t the only gospel superstar to find himself on the wrong side of the law.

Long before Winans was arrested for allegedly assaulting his ex-wife, gospel granddaddy Andrae Crouch was locked up on cocaine and drug paraphernalia charges.

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It was November 1982 when Crouch who had already amassed five Grammies, was pulled over by Los Angeles cops for driving erratically.

In an interview with Contemporary Christian Music Magazine, Crouch admitted he had a straw and vial with cocaine residue belonging to some unsaved friends who partied in his Marina Del Ray pad while he was out of town.

Planning to confront them about it, Crouch had pocketed the evidence but was pulled over by cops before he could give it to them, he said. The charges were eventually dropped against him due to insufficient evidence.

While other gospel stars caught behaving badly may have avoided jail, they haven’t escaped the press.

Rev. Alberto Cutié quit the Roman Catholic Church last month when a Mexican tabloid published pictures of the handsome Cuban- American priest romping on a Florida beach with a bikini-clad beauty.

A charismatic media personality known as “Father Oprah,” Cutié has since become an Episcopalian priest and is presently engaged to the woman he was pictured with.

Gospel bad boy Tonéx, has always been, er, shall we say…different? He rippled the waters in 2005 when he abruptly divorced his wife of five years.

In 2006 when his recording company, Zomba/Verity Records, filed a $1 million lawsuit against him citing breach of contract, Tonéx went on a profanity laden tirade denouncing the gospel music industry.

The year after that, the Grammy-nominated artist continued to ruffle church folks feathers releasing a song suggesting he was gay.

And there hardly seems to be a shortage of preachers who surprise us with new developments–from Rev. Jesse Jackson, who fathered a daughter out of wedlock, to Jimmy Swaggart, the popular 1980s televangelist, who dallied with hookers and was burned. Can we ever write a list of reverends gone wild without including him?

Okay, okay, so we’re not just hating on the church brothers today, there’s actually a redemptive seed in all of this: People can actually make surprising comebacks after stumbling.

It’s always impressive to see Swaggart on TV, still preaching the gospel after his very public fall. Now that takes guts.

And look at Crouch who quickly brushed off his arrest record and went on to win four more Grammies and continues to be one of the most celebrated Gospel artists of our generation.

As for our other bad boys:

In an apparent reconciliation with his record label, Tonéx released his first new album in five years in March, entitled “Unspoken.”

Rev. Jackson still continues to be one of our most prominent civil rights activists.

As for Winans, while admitting no wrongdoing, the BET’s ‘Sunday’s Best’ judge released a statement on his website calling the charges against him “heart wrenching.”

“Since I choose to say nothing negative about my children’s mother, I will make no comment other than to say the allegations are inconsistent with my character and the foundation upon which I was raised,” he said.

So for those among us shaking our heads in judgement, don’t act like you haven’t messed up, we’ve all done something illegal, immoral or just plain wrong, only difference is it just didn’t end up on the six o’clock news.

We’ve all fallen, but there’s nothing like mercy, grace, and forgiveness to get us going in the right direction again.

As the song says, we fall down, but we get up!

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