Advent Waiting & Longing—Play-in Round

26 entries! Amazing. Thanks to all who contributed, and it makes for an extra round of voting this time.

Listening to all of these, I realize there are so many different ways to evaluate: Does the lyric convey waiting and longing? Does the music? And, is the lyric more or less hopeful, and is that better or worse? And if it’s got a romantic twinge, does that help or hurt?

The top six seeds are automatically through to round one; you won’t be voting on those in this play-in round. But here they are, in case you want to get a head start on listening.

#6 is Advent Hymn by Christy Nockels, submitted by Andy Comfort.

#5 is Ave Maria by Leslie Odom Jr., submitted by Tami Burton.

#4 is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by Voces8, submitted by David Sherwood.

#3 is Maybe This Christmas by Ron Sexsmith, submitted by Bethany Bylsma.

#2 is O Come by Porter’s Gate, submitted by Sammie Eilert

And #1 is Irrational Season by Audrey Assad, submitted by Heidi Hopkins.

Here’s the bracket!

We’ll just march our way down the bracket, as opposed to going in seeding order. You vote for your favorite in each match up by clicking on the name (the YouTube link will be embedded in order for you to listen.)

Both #16 and #17 were submitted by Bethany Bylsma

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#8 was submitted by Kelly Simonsen, and #25 by Gabee Horttor.

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#9 was submitted by Elizabeth Curtis Gemeroy and Twila LeMar, #24 by Robin Mohr.

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#12 was submitted by Jennifer Perez, #21 by Jay Miller.

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#13 was submitted by Carol Sherwood, #20 by Meghan Czarnecki.

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#11 was submitted by Erin Wilson, #22 by Robin Mohr.

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#14 was submitted by Connor Magee, #19 by Bethany Bylsma.

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#7 was submitted by Connor Magee and Martha Wood, #26 by Rachelle Staley.

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#10 was submitted by Bethany Bylsma, #23 by Deb Buerkle.

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#15 was submitted by Carol Sherwood, #18 by Twila LeMar.

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Whew! There we go! That’s a lot to listen to and vote on, so I’m making the deadline Friday at 5 pm PST. Vote! Share! Yell! Criticize my seeding! Let’s have fun. (As the week goes on, I might post some reflections on some of these amazing lyrics.)