# 31st Annual South African Music Awards

The 31st Annual 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.

## 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 2024 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. The RiSA extended the entry period to 10 February 2025, due to various requests from the industry.
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 (excluding visualizers) sourced from the RiSA Audio Visual Licensing NPC and YouTube from the period 16 April 2024 to 31 January 2025.
The South African Music Awards (SAMAs) fell short on sponsorships 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 SAMAs' spokesperson, Lesley Mofokeng told The Citizen that 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.

## Nominees

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

### Top 5 Categories

Special awards :
* Album of the Year |
* Duo or Group of the Year |
* Female Artist of the Year |
* Male Artist of the Year |
* Newcomer of the Year |

### Album genre super categories

Album genre super categories :
| Best Rock Album | Best Pop Album |
| Beste Pop Album | Best Adult Contemporary Album (English) |
| Beste Kontemporêre Musiek Album | Best African Adult Contemporary Album |
| Best Alternative Album | Best R&B/Soul Album |
| Best Hip Hop Album | Best Kwaito Album |
| Best Amapiano Album | Best Gqom Album |
| Best Dance Album | Best Traditional Faith Album |
| Best Contemporary Faith Music Album | Best African Indigenous Faith Music Album |
| Best Traditional Album | Best Maskandi Album |
| Best Jazz Album | Best Classical/Instrumental Album |
| Best Afro Pop Album | Best Reggae Album |

### Technical categories

Technical categories :
| Best Produced Music Video | Best Produced Album |
| Best Engineered Album | Remix of the Year |
| Best Collaboration ||

### Public vote

Public vote categories :
| Record of the Year | Music Video of the Year |

## Special awards

In the list below, winners are highlighted in bold where necessary.
Special awards :
* Lifetime Achievement Award |
* International Achievement Award |
* Chairperson's Award |
* Most Streamed Song of the Year |
* Rest of Africa Award |

## Prizes

The cash prizes awarded to the winners of the Annual South African Music Awards. Adapted from the SAMA31 general rules booklet.
List of cash prizes per category :
| Awards | Prizes | Prizes |
| Awards | ZAR | USD |
| Top 5 categories | 15 000 | 1014.88 |
| Album of the Year | 25 000 | 1691.47 |
| Genre categories | 10 000 | 676.59 |
| Chairman's Award | 20 000 | 1353.18 |
| Lifetime Achievement Award | 20 000 | 1353.18 |
| International Achievement Award | 20 000 | 1353.18 |
| Technical awards | 10 000 | 676.59 |
| Best-selling awards | 10 000 | 676.59 |
| Album of the Decade | 20 000 | 1353.18 |
| Record of the Decade | 20 000 | 1353.18 |
| Public vote categories | 20 000 | 1353.18 |
| Most Streamed Song of the Year | 10 000 | 676.59 |