SAMA Awards 2017 Record of the Year fiasco over ‘flawed’ nomination
The SAMA Awards 2017 has come with its fair share of drama.
It involves the biggest award of the evening, the coveted ‘Record of the Year’ accolade.
When it comes to nominating artists, there is a procedure regarding selection.
One would think that this procedure would be sound and fair but it seems to be flawed.
To be nominated you are required to be featured on a Top 20 list, which two nominees failed to do.
Reportedly, Locnville and Miss Pru didn’t receive the airplay required to be nominated.
The list gets longer…
RiSA CEO Nhandla Sibisi spoke to TshisaLIVE explaining how auditors contracted to the organisers consulted not 1 but 2 independent lists of radio airplay.
Radiomonitor as well as a local Barcelona Music and Audio Technologies (BMAT) list was referred to in order to create an accumulative top 20 list which was then used to select the nominees.
In other words, if you rated higher on one list you are eligible for nomination even if you didn’t make the other list.
Nhanla admits that the discrepancies between the two lists were a major flaw and that changes will be made to next year’s nomination process.
He goes on to say: “This is an honest lesson learnt. We wanted to consult both lists to make it as objective and fair as possible but we now see that there are very obvious flaws in the system and we need to remedy this.
The organisers are set to launch an investigation into what will lead to the most just system of nomination to ensure that next year’s SAMA will hold integrity.
SAMA Awards 2017 may be over, but the institution has a long road of ironing out to follow.
