THE wait and anxiety as to who will be nominated for the 23rd South African Music Awards is over for the local musicians as today they heard their fate on who was nominated in which category.
And like at the MetroFM Awards, it was young rapper Junior "Nasty C" Ngcobo who dominated the with six nominations, while Ngud' hitmaker Kwesta walked away with five and Amazulu singer Amanda Black was close behind with four nominations.
The Bad Hair rapper's debut album has been nominated in the Best Rap Album, Best Music Video, Album of the Year, Best Male Artist, and Best Newcomer categories.
He tweeted his excitement after the nominations were announced.
"God comes through every-single-time," he wrote on his page.
The nominee announcements come after last month, the organisers of the awards boasted of the increase in the number of entries received this year which was more than 700 names from across South Africa’s musical genres compared to the 470 entries from the previous.
Of the over 30 categories announced it is without doubt that the Best Female, Best Male, Album of the Year and Song of the year are constantly the highly coveted awards which sees the biggest hitmakers of each year tackle to clinch these categories.
In best male category both Kwesta and Nasty C will face Dr Tumi, Musa Sakwameng and Nomvula crooner Nathi while Amanda Black is up against gospel singer Lebo Sekgobela, Thandiswa Mazwai, Kelly Khumalo and Gqom queen Babes Wodumo in the best female category.
For album of the year, the top three most nominated will once again feature in this category competing with Thandiswa Mazwai's debut jazz album Belede and Black Motion's Ya Badimo album.
Other highlights were that gospel singer Sfiso Ncwane, who passed away in December, received a nomination for Best Traditional Faith Music Album. While The Voice: South Africa couch Kahn Morbee's band The Parlotones' album is up against Morbee's winning contestant Richard Stirton in the best rock album category.
Good news is that the awards return to Sun City this year to be held on May 26, after spending a year in Durban due to renovations of the Sun City resort in the previous years.
