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.
;Album of the Year
;Female Artist of the Year
;Male Artist of the Year
;Newcomer of the Year
;Duo/Group of the Year
;Best Rock Album
;Best Pop Album
;Beste Pop Album
;Best Afro Pop Album
;Best R&B/Soul Album
;Best Adult Contemporary Album
;Beste Kontemporere Musiek Album
;Best Hip Hop Album
;Best Reggae Album
;Best Adult Contemporary Album
;Remix of the Year
;Best Dance Album
;Best Kwaito/Gqom/Amapiano
;Collaboration of the year
;Best Live Audio Visual Recording
;Best Alternative Album
;Best African Indigenous Faith Album
;Best Traditional Faith Music Album
;Best Contemporary Faith Music Album
;Best Maskandi Album
;Rest of Africa Artist
;Best Traditional Album
;Best Engineer
;Best Produced Album
;Music Video of the Year
;Record of the Year
NominationsArtist

5
Black Coffee

4
Zonke

4
Sjava

4
Sun-El Musician

4
Sho Madjozi

2
Busiswa

2
AKA

2
Paxton

2
Black Motion

2
Nakhane

2
Vusi Nova

2
Cassper Nyovest

2
Kholeka

2
Nasty C

2
Jan Bloukaas

Special Awards

International Achievement Award
Lifetime Achievement Award
Best DVD Selling Album
Best Selling Digital Artist
'SAMRO/CAPASSO HIGHEST AIRPLAY COMPOSER’S AWARD'
SAMRO/CAPASSO BEST DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AWARD'
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, explained their reasons behind adding gqom and amapiano to the kwaito category.