25th South African Music Awards
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. The list of nominees was announced on April 25, 2019. HHP, TKZee & Mango Groove received the Lifetime Achievement Award at this years show. Winners and nominees. Nominees are as listed below. Winners are in bold. Special Awards. International Achievement Award Lifetime Achievement Award Sales and Downloads Awards. Best DVD Selling  Album Best Selling Digital Artist 'SAMRO/CAPASSO HIGHEST AIRPLAY COMPOSER’S AWARD' SAMRO/CAPASSO BEST DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AWARD' Change. 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.