Call for nominations: 10th SABC Crown Gospel Music Awards

The awards will be held at Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, on 26 November and broadcast live on SABC 2.

Designed to honour outstanding players in the South African gospel industry, this year’s event will honour artists in 39 categories. Two new categories – Best Itende and Best Clap-&-Tap – have been added to this year’s edition and are open for nominations.

SABC Crown Gospel Music Awards spokesperson Wendy Sithole told Music In Africa that the awards had also introduced two special categories that would be open to public participation.

“This year we introduced two special categories namely Artist of Decade and Song of Decade,” she said. “These two categories are not under nominations, the public will have to vote via SMS.”

Voting for the special categories will be done as follows:

Gospel Artist of the Decade: SMS artist of the decade + artist name to 34069 (SA only).

Gospel Song of the Decade: SMS song of the decade + song name to 34069 (SA only).

SMSs cost R1.50.

Who is eligible to enter?

• The awards are open to all recording companies, artists, producers, engineers, composers and promoters who are citizens or permanent residents of South Africa. The category for Best of Africa Gospel is open to all companies and artists in African (outside SA boarders).
• Only works that have been released in the past 36 months and have not been nominated before in a particular category of the SABC Crown Gospel Music Awards will be accepted.
• The Best Classic of All Time category entry should be a song that has been in existence for seven years or more.
• International collaboration and productions are also encouraged to enter, provided they are predominantly by South African artists or producers.

Entry fees and prizes

The entry fee for Best Gospel Artist and Best Gospel Song is R1 500 ($120). The winner in each of the two categories will get R10 000. Entry fees for all other categories are R1 200. Winners of other categories will each receive R5 000. Entry fees will not be refunded for disqualified entries.

Artists who are nominated in any category will receive:

• One night accommodation at a five-star hotel.
• Two VIP tickets to the main event and cocktail after party.

Applicants can access nomination forms from the Crown Gospel Music official website. They can also call or send a WhatsApp message directly to 081 846 1824, call 031 306 0015 or email wendy@mirrorpr.co.za.