Zakes Bantwini has weighed in on the state of the South African Music Awards (Samas) following their 31st edition on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Grammy-winning DJ and producer penned an opinion piece speaking on the impact the award ceremony has had in the entertainment industry over the years and lamenting how that has slowly deteriorated. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when the Samas meant the whole country stopped. Not just musicians; everyone \u2014 politicians, business people, athletes, teachers, families. Everyone gathered around their TVs. The Samas weren\u2019t just an industry event; they were a South African event. The cultural weight of that night was massive. Think about what the Grammys mean in America \u2014 that\u2019s what the Samas used to be for us,\u201d Zakes wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow? Yesterday came and went. Barely a mention on social media. Artists weren\u2019t there. Fans didn\u2019t care. All that energy that used to exist around this event \u2014 the red carpet, the interviews, the collaborations, the conversations \u2014 the next day, it\u2019s gone. We\u2019ve let the Samas shrink from something the whole nation cared about to something most people don\u2019t even notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local awards are now overshadowed by global recognition of South African musicians, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get more excited about global recognition than we do about our own awards. South African fans wait for the world to tell them who their best artists are before they take notice. <\/p>\n
\nRisa needs to rebuild trust. That means accountability, transparency and a real commitment to recognising excellence wherever it comes from<\/p>\n
\u2014 \u00a0Zakes Bantwini<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying international validation isn\u2019t important; it is. Competing globally means you\u2019re meeting world-class standards. But we can\u2019t let chasing international recognition make us forget about our own institutions. When we do that, we\u2019re saying our own people\u2019s validation doesn\u2019t matter as much. We\u2019re teaching the next generation that you only matter if you get recognised overseas first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zakes called out the judges for awarding artists whose relevance is questionable, and the Recording Industry of South Africa (Risa) for failing to lead the reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis industry has given me everything \u2014 my career, my platform, my life. That\u2019s why I won\u2019t stop talking about what needs to change. Risa needs to make the judging process transparent. They need panels with diverse voices, not just the same gatekeepers but people who are actually in touch with what\u2019s happening: young curators, regional representatives, specialists across different genres. <\/p>\n
\u201cRisa needs to rebuild trust. That means accountability, transparency and a real commitment to recognising excellence wherever it comes from. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work but it\u2019s not impossible. Other countries have reformed their music awards to better reflect what\u2019s actually happening. We can do the same. But it takes leadership with vision and the guts to make real changes; not just surface-level adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zakes Bantwini has weighed in on the state of the South African Music Awards (Samas) following their 31st…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[4648,18,117,19,17,337,3323,36953,125006,125007,125004,125005],"class_list":{"0":"post-235653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-music-industry","15":"tag-recording-industry","16":"tag-risa","17":"tag-sama","18":"tag-south-african-music-awards","19":"tag-zakes-bantwini"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115729111846041583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}