The 25th Annual South African Music Awards ceremony was held at the Sun City Arena in North West on June 1, 2019. It aired live on SABC 1. The show was hosted by Bob Mabena, Melanie Bala, Twasa Seoke and hip-hop star Khuli Chana. [1]
25th South African Music Awards | |
---|---|
Date | June 1, 2019 |
Location | Sun City, North West |
Country | South Africa |
Hosted by | Bob Mabena Melanie Bala Twasa Seoke Khuli Chana |
Most nominations | Black Coffee (5) |
Television/radio coverage | |
Network | SABC |
The list of nominees was announced on April 25, 2019. [2] HHP, TKZee & Mango Groove received the Lifetime Achievement Award at this years show. [3]
Nominees are as listed below. Winners are in bold. [4]
Nominations | Artist |
---|---|
5 | Black Coffee |
4 | Zonke |
Sjava | |
Sun-El Musician | |
Sho Madjozi | |
2 | Busiswa |
AKA | |
Paxton | |
Black Motion | |
Nakhane | |
Vusi Nova | |
Cassper Nyovest | |
Kholeka | |
Nasty C | |
Jan Bloukaas |
International Achievement Award
Lifetime Achievement Award
Best DVD Selling Album
Best Selling Digital Artist
'SAMRO/CAPASSO HIGHEST AIRPLAY COMPOSER’S AWARD'
SAMRO/CAPASSO BEST DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AWARD'
In 2019, When the nominations came out the "Kwaito" category was combined into the kwaito/gqom/amapiano category, this change sparked a backlash from fan and kwaito artists who were unhappy with the combination of this genre, kwaito artist Israel Matseke led the complaints committee with the hashtag #DeathOf Kwaito, saying "that combining the three "different" genres was a deliberate attempt to kill the original kwaito sound". Responding to the backlash, Nhlanhla Sibisi,the CEO of the Recording Industry of South Africa (Risa), explained their reasons behind adding gqom and amapiano to the kwaito category.
Gqom and amapiano are both sub-genres of kwaito. Record labels felt it was important to mention them and recognise the growth kwaito has birthed into the music industry. Adding the names to title of the category was our way of recognising the power of kwaito. To say that kwaito is the reason why gqom and amapiano exist and it is important. [1]