31st Annual South African Music Awards

Last updated

31st South African Music Awards
Sponsored byThe Motsepe Foundation
Date2025
CountrySouth Africa
Presented by Recording Industry of South Africa
Television/radio coverage
Network
  30th  · South African Music Awards · 32nd 

The 31st South African Music Awards (or SAMA31) is set to take place in the first half of 2025. Presented by the Recording Industry of South Africa, the event is scheduled to go live on YouTube and broadcast on SABC1. It will honour the excellency in South African music, celebrating best albums, music videos and songs released in South Africa during the period 16 April 2024 to 31 January 2025.

Contents

Background

The 31st Annual South African Music Awards (SAMA31) celebrates the excellency in South African music and honours the best music videos, albums and songs commercially released in the country during the period 16 April 2025 to 31 January 2025. Entries for nomination consideration were open from 10 December 2024 to 31 January. For members of the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA), the entry fee for an individual or entity was R862.50 ($ 58.36), and for non-members it was R4,600.00 ($311.23) including value-added tax per entry for all categories. [1]

The Public Voting Categories, Record of the Year and the Music Video of the Year, were strictly not open for entries. For the Record of the Year, songs were short-listed based on airplay and streams tracked by Radiomonitor and the Official South African Charts respectively. In a weighted formula, streams and airplay were combined to determine the top 20. For the Music Video of the Year, music videos were short-listed based on the most played music videos sourced from the RiSA Audio Visual Licensing NPC and YouTube from the period 16 April 2024 to 31 January 2025. [1]

The South African Music Awards (SAMAs) fell short on sponsorship since MTN parted ways with the organization in 2014. The SAMAs signed a three-year contract with the Motsepe Foundation in 2023. The foundation sponsored the ceremony in 2023, 2024 and 2025 will be their last. In attempt to score sponsors, the SAMA31 will take place in the first half of 2025, for the first time since the 25th Annual South African Music Awards in 2019. [2]

Nominees

Below is the list of nominees. Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

Top 5 Categories

Album genre super categories

Technical categories

Public vote

Special awards

In the list below, winners are highlighted in bold where necessary.

Prizes

The cash prizes awarded to the winners of the Annual South African Music Awards. Adapted from the SAMA 31 general rules booklet. [1]

List of cash prizes per category
AwardsPrizes
ZAR USD
Top 5 categories15 0001014.88
Album of the Year 25 0001691.47
Genre categories10 000676.59
Chairman's Award20 0001353.18
Lifetime Achievement Award
International Achievement Award
Technical awards10 000676.59
Best-selling awards
Album of the Decade20 0001353.18
Record of the Decade
Public vote categories
Most Streamed Song of the Year10 000676.59

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "The 31st Annual South African Music Awards | General Rules" (PDF). South African Music Awards . Recording Industry of South Africa. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 16, 2025. Retrieved January 16, 2025.
  2. Tiwane, Bonginkosi (December 10, 2024). "Samas change 2025 edition date as organisers try to secure additional sponsors". The Citizen . Retrieved January 25, 2025.