SABC Crown Gospel Music Awards call for entries

Now in their ninth year, the prestigious awards honour outstanding players in the South African gospel music industry, including singers, producers, promoters, writers, managers, radio and TV stations. 

The main event will take place at the Durban International Conference Centre in Durban on Sunday, 27 November. The closing date for entries is 30 September 2016. 

The awards keep growing as organisers add new categories every year. This year there are 39 categories, compared to last year’s 37.  Added this year are Best Traditional Gospel Album and Best Gospel Jazz Song. Last year organisers introduced the Salt Award, which is given to an individual who is not a gospel musician but making a difference in South Africa.

The awards are the brainchild of Zanele Mbokazi, a former presenter at popular radio station UKhozi FM. In a statement  Mbokazi said this year’s edition will include performances from international artists.  

“This year will see the inclusion of international gospel acts, addition of unknown and untapped talent and as a norm, the audience will be dancing to popular tunes,” she said.

She added that this year’s awards will be preceded by a Christian Expo on 25 to 27 November. 

Supported by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the awards have grown to become one of the biggest events on the local music calendar, also influencing the launch of the pan African Trumpet Africa Gospel Music Awards (TAGMA), held in Nigeria in May this year. 

Who is eligible to enter?

• The awards are open to all recording companies, artists, producers, engineers, composers and promoters who are citizens or legal residents of South Africa. The category for best of Africa Gospel is open to all companies and artists, from African continent (outside SA boarders).
• Only the work(s) that has been released in the past 36 months and have not been nominated before in that 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 at least (seven) years back and more counting from the current year and should have been released by the entrant.
• International collaboration and productions are also encouraged to enter, provided that any collaboration is predominantly by South African artist(s) or producer(s) has/have star or equal billing on the release.   

 For more information, please call +27 31 303 3520 or email Wendy at wendy@mirrorpr.co.za. The nomination forms can be downloaded on the Crown Gospel Awards website.