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November 5, 2020
Culture

Who won what at the 2020 South Australian Music Awards?

Motez, Jess Day, Wing Defence and Jessica Wishart picked up multiple awards in a ceremony that celebrated the strength of the South Australian music industry in one of the most trying years in its history.

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  • Words: Johnny von Einem
  • Pictures: Supplied

The 2020 South Australian Music Awards were held on Tuesday night, 3 November, with the local industry coming together to celebrate their communal achievements in spite of what has been an extremely difficult year for punters, performers and crew alike.

All sides of the industry gathered on the University of Adelaide’s Cloisters and lawns, the open-air venue now known as The College Green, to witness the awards ceremony.

Remarks

Browse the SAM Awards red carpet gallery here.

This article was produced in collaboration with the South Australian Music Awards.

The formal proceedings were interlaced with performances from Chelsea Manor, J-MILLA, Seabass and Lonelyspeck.

For the first time in CityMag‘s history, we presented a SAM Award – the inaugural Best Innovation award.

This category gave kudos to the quick thinkers in the South Australian music industry who developed a response to the global pandemic, creating outlets for fans and musicians to connect despite the tyranny of distance created by venues being forcibly shut.

Nominated for the award were Mosaic Audio Visual, who launched Ghost Light Bunker; Sparkke at the Whitmore, for their livestreamed Thursday Night Knock Offs series; The Wheaty’s WheatyLIVE initiative; livestreaming collectives Sunny Side Uploads and Space Jams; and Play/Pause/Play, which developed and released an SA music podcast.

The award ultimately went to Luke Penman of Play/Pause/Play, who used his acceptance speech to call attention to the dire need for government support in the local music industry.

“Fifteen-thousand-dollar project grants don’t make projects like the six that we’ve seen nominated tonight viable,” Luke said.

“We need real funding; we need real investment from a State Government that believes in what we all know is a strong sector.

“Funding for the local music industry is about more than the local music industry. It is an investment, and it’s an investment not just because of the art itself, it’s not an investment just because it makes life worth living and it builds the cultural fabric of South Australia; it’s literally a financial investment that grows, because the local music scene gets people out of the house, it gets people spending money in local businesses, it creates jobs in the music industry, in hospitality. It supports jobs in graphic design, in photography, in videography, in games… and we need to see a hell of a lot more of it.”

See Luke’s acceptance speech in full here.

We’ve got the full list of 2020 SAM Award winners below, so read on and send kudos to your favourites accordingly.


 

Industry-voted awards

Best Studio
Ghostnote Recording Studios

 

Best Studio Engineer/Producer
Mario Spate

 

Best Live Technician
Luke Hancock

 

Best Major Festival/Event
St Jerome’s Laneway Festival – Adelaide

 

Best Small Festival/Event
The Porch Sessions

 

Best Venue
Lion Arts Factory

 

Best Cover Art
Todd Fischer (Lost Woods – Shaping Distant Memories)

 

Best Manager
Matthew Khabbaz

 

Best Music Video
Motez – ‘Soulitude’ (Motez, Pilot Studio, Mapped Design, Daggers Production, Kelsee Pedler)

 

Best Song
Jess Day – ‘Affection’

 

Best New Artist
Siberian Tiger & Slowmango

 

Best Group
Wing Defence

 

Best Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander Artist
Jessica Wishart

 

Best Solo Artist
Jess Day

 

Best Release
Motez – Soulitude & Wing Defence – Friends

 

Best Music Educator
Nick O’Connor

 

Best Innovation
Play/Pause/Play

 

 

People’s Choice Awards

Blues & Roots
Ollie English

 

Country
Jessica Wishart

 

Electronic
Motez

 

Experimental
Sons of Zoku

 

Folk
Naomi Keyte

 

Heavy
No No No No No

 

Hip Hop
We Move Like Giants

 

Jazz
Django Rowe

 

Pop
Germein

 

Punk
Wing Defence

 

Rock
TOWNS

 

Soul/Funk/R&B
Wanderers

 

 

Special Awards

UNESCO Best International Collaboration Award
Farhan Shah and Udan Khatola

 

Music SA Community Achievement Award
Craig Armstrong

 

APRA AMCOS Emily Burrows Award
Seabass

 


 

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