The change in dates means the Sama organizing team will have less time to prepare for the ceremony.
In a bold move, the South African Music Awards (Sama) has decided to host the awards in the first half of 2025, in a manner that was in place before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are going back to the original dates of Samas. This format has always been an event that takes place in the first half of the year,” said Samas spokesperson Leslie Mofokeng. The Citizen.
The last time the awards were held in the first half of the year was in 2019, when they were held at North West's Suncity Arena and saw Sujava, Sho Madjozi and Joyous Celebration walk away as some of the night's biggest winners did.
Mofokeng said the actual month of the new year has not yet been decided, but the goal is to hold it in the first half of 2025.
“It should be before June. There's a lot of music being released in South Africa every week,” Mofokeng said.
“The key is to be fresh and relevant to the industry that the Samas family is in.”
Mr Mofokeng said the date change meant the Sama organizing team would have less time to prepare for the awards ceremony, which was not the shortest amount of time to put together the awards.
“When KZN terminated my contract in 2023, the minimum was three weeks. We had three weeks to get the show done and we managed to get it done,” he said.
Also read: Samas boss says 'it's not an extra party' amid rumors the event has been cancelled.
Samas has been without a main sponsor since MTN withdrew in early 2014. Mobile phone network providers had naming rights as main sponsors, but this is the first time in almost a decade that the awards have had a sponsor of this magnitude.
The Motsepe Foundation currently sponsors Samas, but its sponsorship is independent of the network provider.
The Motsepe Foundation's relationship with the award is in the second year of a three-year agreement, with the 2025 edition being the contractually final. Mr Mofokeng said that despite receiving support from the foundation, he was keen to get more companies on board.
“Motsepe” [Foundation] That's obviously not enough to cover everything. The budget is much higher than that. We have always looked for domestic partners,” he said.
The foundation also supports the Metro FM Music Awards.
As recently as last month's edition of Samas magazine, Mofokeng confirmed that the National Ministry of Arts and Culture is supporting the funding to host the awards.
Also read: Artists express displeasure over Samas event debacle
Challenges of the new coronavirus
The 2020 awards ceremony has been postponed from March to August.
To counter lockdown restrictions, including social distancing, the awards were presented in five episodes that were streamed from August 3 to 7.
The 2021 awards ceremonies were held in July and were also streamed as people were unable to attend.
“COVID-19 has affected many of our plans, as there was social distancing and things weren’t happening. It was a great achievement for us,” Mofokeng asserted.
There was some sense of normalcy in 2022 when Lawrence Maleka and Nnamdi Mada hosted the 28th edition of the Sun City Super Bowl in Rustenburg.
In 2016, the award was sponsored by the National Department of Arts and Culture, KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and the City of eThekwini.
“Sponsorship is still an issue since we lost our long-time sponsor, but we still managed to survive and host the awards,” Mofokeng said.
“Sponsorship is definitely a key factor when it comes to rescheduling, as funding is not easy to secure. It’s something we do every year to ensure we have enough funding to make the event a success. .This is not a cheap event, it's a huge event that draws thousands of people over a weekend or long weekend,'' he said.
To give a glimpse of the budget numbers Sama is dealing with, a spokesperson said it would cost around 30 million to hold the event at Sun City in 2022.
“It includes accommodation, transport and all other costs. People stayed at the Palace of the Lost City and all the other hotels in Sun City and the budget was around R30 million. This is not a cheap event This will bring significant benefits to the host prefecture and host city.”
Also read: President: Ramaphosa advises KZN government not to host Samas
Now accepting submissions
Following the success of last month's awards ceremony, the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) is now inviting musicians to submit entries for its 31st edition.
Entries must be released between April 16, 2024 and January 31, 2025 to be considered for Sama 31 in 30 or more genre categories.
Submissions can be uploaded to the Sama website or delivered to the Randburg office during business hours.
The deadline is midnight on January 31, 2025.
Nhlanhla Sibisi, CEO of Recording Industry South Africa (RiSA), said: The number of entries has increased over the past few years, and we hope to maintain this number in the future. This is a valuable vote of confidence in our system from an industry we care about. ”
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