Rosemary Siemens and her husband Eli Bennett have received a Leo Award nomination for their "Sunday Hymn Serenade - Bring Back the Hymns" YouTube show. The awards celebrate excellence in British Columbia’s film and television industry, with the couple receiving a nod in the Best Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series.
"Eli and I are so excited," shared Siemens. "It's our first nomination for the 'Sunday Hymn Serenade - Bring Back the Hymns' show, and it's our first Leo nomination. Eli has got a Leo award before. These are awards for the best of TV and film in B.C., so it's very cool for YouTube to now be a part of that."
The couple is very familiar with the Leo Awards, with Bennett having been the awards ceremony's Music Director for the last seven years.
"He brings a band and does all the cues as people walk up and walk down and it's very fun," she added. "I always attend, but I've never been nominated, so it's very, very cool."
Ministry has become full-time and grown substantially
Since its launch, the duo has released over 300 hymn videos, accruing more than 150 million views and over 625,000 subscribers.
"We started this in 2019, very humble beginnings, and it started a few months before COVID when we had time to actually to do a hymn every week," she explained. "We were touring so much, as most of you know, we were non-stop on the road. I think the year before it was like 150 shows and 100 cities between the two of us and it was just nuts. We would have never had the time to do this, and so we kind of started slowly, and then when COVID hit, we had time to do this. We started in our apartment on a little white wall, and now we have a dedicated studio."
Based on the analytics they have from each video, they can say with confidence "Sunday Hymn Serenade - Bring Back the Hymns" has reached around the world and according to Siemens has been viewed in every country in the world.
"It's awesome to just get the nod for all the work we've done, but really it's how it's impacting people's lives," she noted. "We're just so excited about it, and we love what we do and we're working nonstop, but it's to bring hope and inspiration, and hopefully, draw people closer to God."
And their efforts are clearly connecting based on the feedback they are receiving from those enjoying the channel.
"People are so generous and so kind with their comments," she said. "We get calls, we get emails, we get messages on YouTube. It's very encouraging. We're putting a lot out, but we're getting so much back in return, so it's very beautiful."
The Leo Awards Ceremonies take place July 12th and 13th in Vancouver.
You can listen to Sunday Hymn Serenade - Radio Edition the first Sunday of each month at 1pm on CFAM Radio 950. The next episode will be Sunday, July 6th.
Click below to listen to the entire conversation with Rosemary Siemens.