The first episode of the 26th annual South African Music Awards (SAMA 26) aired on Mzansi Magic (channel 153 on DStv) and MyMuze’s live stream on Monday evening.
This new virtual series is spread out over five days, with the final showing of the awards scheduled for Friday 7 August 2020.
Already the show’s format has drawn ire from social media, even prompting confusion from SAMA nominee and multi-award winner AKA who had no clue where the show was broadcasting.
The first night, hosted by Dineo Moeketsi and Donovan Goliath, saw big wins from K.O and Nandi Madida who scooped up the Best Collaboration category and Davido, the clear favourite in the Rest of Africa category.
However, a large online community still held gripes over the awards’ apparent disregard for certain key players in South Africa’s bustling music industry.
Three reasons why people are boycotting
There were other disgruntled murmurs heard from the depths of the #SAMA26MustFall trending hashtag. We’ve collated these into three reasons why people are boycotting the awards show.
- Master KG was not nominated
At the forefront of the SAMA 26 boycotts is the fact that Master KG’s global smash hit record Jerusalema featuring Nomcebo Zikode was grossly overlooked by the awards committee.
The song was released in August 2019, within the qualifying period for consideration in the SAMA 26 ceremony. However, for reasons that have baffled the entire music community, Master KG was not honoured with a nomination.
People have since called out SAMA 26’s apparent purposeful neglect of artists from the Limpopo province.
- This new five-day format is not appealing
Another reason behind this #SAMA26MustFall campaign is attributed to the lack of infomercial promotion of the virtual event.
Even people who were nominated for the SAMA 26 had no idea where the ceremony was broadcasting. It is apparent that not enough effort was put into raising awareness about the new virtual format. The bulk of disgruntled social media users did not know that apart from the on-screen broadcast on Mzansi Magic, the award ceremony was also streaming live on MyMuze.
- ‘SAMA 26 is a scam’
This is probably a reoccurring theme of the SAMAs. Every year, a group of fans feel hard done by if their favourite artist is snubbed.
There is no basis to this claim but once again, it was prominent feature of the #SAMA26MustFall trending hashtag.
