One of the country’s biggest music award ceremonies the South African Music Awards (SAMAs) took place this past weekend.
While several top talents all got rewarded for an entire year’s worth of hard work, some felt that other artists deserved more recognition given the amount of success their music achieved in sales and streams.
In a post on X, the Mama I Made It hitmaker Cassper Nyovest shared his frustration that Tyla has not received the proper recognition for her hit song Water.
In the last few months, the Joburg-born singer achieved much success for the hit song, including a 2024 Viewer’s Choice Award, MTV Music Award, Basadi in Music Award, and Grammy Award.
In his post, Cassper wrote:
“No way! Tyla won a Grammy for Water bro, but she did not get the SAMA for Record of the Year at home. Haha, y’all are playing games.”
On the night, the international sensation, was among some of the biggest winners after bagging, Female Artist of the Year, Best Newcomer of the Year, Best Pop album for her self-titled album, as well as an International Achievement accolade.
Meanwhile, the award for the Record of the Year was awarded to Paris by Mthandeni SK featuring Lwah Ndlunkulu.
Responding to Cassper’s post, not many social media users stood in agreement with him, others had a different perspective of how this may have been possible.
“She could have been cheated locally… that’s possible… HOWEVER… …We cannot and should not benchmark American success to automatically mean South African success.”
“The masses of SA consume music differently than Americans, especially amaPiano, Gospel & Maskandi,” commented Penuel Mlotshwa.
Another commented:
SA likes things, but what they don’t like is overseas success stories, Trevor Noah is another example. Once you’ve made it out of South Ahhhh – we don’t conform 😂
— ryan james (@hawXli) November 3, 2024
While a third posted:
SA likes things, but what they don’t like is overseas success stories, Trevor Noah is another example. Once you’ve made it out of South Ahhhh – we don’t conform 😂
— ryan james (@hawXli) November 3, 2024
Also see: Zakes Bantwini issues apology for remarks on DJ Cleo’s SAMAs set
