Sherri Shepherd hosts the Dove Awards

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Sher­ri Shep­herd is the host of the 2011 Dove Awards at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta. ~ Pho­to by Eliza Marie Somers

Sher­ri Shep­herd of “The View” light up the media room back­stage at the Dove Awards at the Fox The­ater in Atlanta.

Dressed in a vibrant pur­ple dressed that was draped in the front, the Emmy Award win­ner was burst­ing by the fact she was at the Dove Awards.

“This is my first Dove Awards and hope­ful­ly not my last. I’m tak­ing singing lessons,” she said. “The first thing I’m say­ing on stage is ‘I love Jesus,’ and I don’t have to wor­ry about that three-sec­ond bleep.”

She said she is look­ing for­ward to hear­ing and meet­ing Toby­Mac, Mary Mary, Natal­ie Grant Kirk Franklin among oth­ers.

Shep­herd explained that Natal­ie Grant’s song “Held” has a spe­cial mean­ing for her. Shep­herd would hold her baby boy, who was born pre­ma­ture and did not have a good prog­no­sis at the time. “That song just helped me through,” she said.

On “The View” the rela­tion­ships among the hosts is like “sis­ters.”

“Do you have a sis­ter?” Shep­herd asked. “Then you know how our rela­tion­ship is. We respect each oth­er. We know we can­not because it would implode.”