Th South African Music Awards (Samas) announced that the next edition will be hosted in the first half of the year. Picture: Supplied
In a bold move, the South African Music Awards (Sama) has decided to host the awards in the first half of 2025, a modus operandi used prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are moving back to the original date of the Samas. The format has always been an event that takes place in the first half of the year,” Sama Spokesperson Lesley Mofokeng told The Citizen.
The last time the awards were hosted in the first six months of the year was in 2019 at the Sun City Arena in the North West where Sjava, Sho Madjozi and Joyous Celebration walked away as some of the night’s biggest winners.
Mofokeng said they haven’t decided on an actual month to host in the new year, but the target is to do it in the first half of 2025.
“It should be anything before June. There’s so much music coming out in South Africa on a weekly basis,” said Mofokeng.
“The point is really to be fresh and be relevant to the industry that the Samas moves in.”
The shift in dates means the Sama organising team will have a shorter time to prepare for the ceremony, Mofokeng said this won’t be their shortest time to put the awards together.
“The shortest time was three weeks in 2023 when KZN cancelled our deal with them. We had three weeks to pull off the show and we pulled it off,” he said.
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The Samas have not had a main sponsor since MTN pulled out in early 2014. The cellular network provider had naming rights as the main sponsor and the awards have not had a sponsor of that calibre in almost a decade.
The Motsepe Foundation is currently the sponsor of the Samas, but their sponsorship is not in the ilk of the network provider.
The Motsepe Foundation’s relationship with the awards is in its second year of a three-year contract, the 2025 edition will contractually be their last. Despite having the foundation’s support, Mofokeng said they’re actively looking to add more corporates into the fold.
“Motsepe [Foundation] alone is not enough to cover everything obviously; the budget is much higher than that. We’ve always looked for national partners,” he said.
The foundation also supports the Metro FM Music Awards.
Mofokeng confirmed that the National Department of Arts and Culture has been assisting with funds to host the awards, as recently as the last month’s edition of the Samas.
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In 2020 awards were postponed from March to August.
Contending with lockdown restrictions that included social distancing, the awards were presented in five episodes for people to stream airing between 3 and 7 August.
In 2021 the awards were hosted in July and these too, were streamed as people were unable to attend.
“Covid affected a lot of our plans because there was social distancing and things could not happen. So for us to host the Sama in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic was a huge achievement,” averred Mofokeng.
There was some sense of normality in 2022 when Lawrence Maleka and Nandi Madida hosted the 28th instalment at the Sun City Superbowl in Rustenburg.
The National Department of Arts and Culture, the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Tourism and the Ethekwini Municipality sponsored the awards in 2016.
“Even though sponsorship has remained an issue since we lost a long-term sponsor, we still managed to survive and host the awards,” shared Mofokeng.
“Sponsorship is definitely a factor when it comes to the moving of dates. Because it’s not easy to secure funding; it’s something that we do year on year so that we can have enough money to pull off the event. It’s not a cheap event, it’s a mega event that attracts thousands of people over a weekend or long weekend,” he said.
To give a glimpse into the budgetary numbers that the Sama deal with, the spokesperson said hosting the event at Sun City in 2022 costs around 30 million.
“Including accommodation, transport and every other cost. People were accommodated at the Palace of the Lost City and all of those other hotels in Sun City, the budget was about R30 million. It’s not a cheap event, but it brings in so much money for the host province or host city.”
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On the back of a successful awards ceremony last month, the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) is now inviting musicians to submit their entries for the 31st instalment.
Entries eligible for a Sama 31 consideration in over 30 genre categories, should have been released between 16 April 2024 and 31 January 2025.
Submissions can be uploaded on the Sama website or delivered to their offices in Randburg during office hours.
The closing date is on 31 January 2025 at midnight.
CEO of the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) Nhlanhla Sibisi said “We are fired up and raring to go with Sama 31 preparations. We have seen an increased number of entries in the past years and we hope to maintain this. It is a much-valued vote of confidence in our systems from the industry that we cherish.”
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