South African Music Awards 2012



COULD THIS BE THE EVENT OF THE YEAR?

Better than ever: SAMA's 2012

Top nominees: From left, Zahara and Mi Casa vocalist

The 18^th Annual South African Music Awards are right around the corner and will be hosted at Sun City in the North West, on April the 30^th 2012. I really think this will be the most memorable event of 2011 for South Africa because of all the planning that has been executed into this event. There will be an amazing 18 hosts for the awards; which include TV favourite Sizwe Dhlamini and Afro-soul singer Unathi. There will be goodie bags handed out to every guest at the event; these goodie bags will include great gifts such as designer sunglasses, trendy jeans and pampering treatment. All of this and more will be possible due to the sponsors the show has; they have popular channel and award broadcaster SABC1, clothing outlet Edgars, car company KIA and many more! In addition to the amazing event planning; the actual event will be even more worthwhile. There are numerous nominee categories this year, with the most nominated artists being newcomers such as Zahara and group Mi Casa. If that isn’t enough; there will even be performances from artists such as hip-hop star AKA and a Lifetime Achievement Award segment for two of South Africa’s musical legends; Ray Phiri and Vusi Mahlasela. I honestly predict that this event will be really packed, plus the tickets to attend (which were found at Computicket ticket sales) are already sold out! This will definitely be a great introduction for the new CEO of the awards; Mr Randall Abrahams, who is also known as a judge on music competition South African idols. 

http://samusicawards.co.za/




6th annual Back to the city

SOCIAL MEDIA DOES IT AGAIN!

The official poster for Back to the city

No matter how many times older people can say social media and technology are confusing the youth, it still proves to be a very powerful factor in spreading the word about events and uniting people! I believe it has proved this right yet again by assisting in spreading the word about a hip hop and youth culture celebration event; the 6^th annual Back To The City event  which will be held on the 27^th of April 2012 on Henry Nxumalo Street in one of South Africa’s biggest cities; Johannesburg. The event includes live performances from great South African hip hop artists, dancers, street art and exhibitions. The event surely sounds like one to not miss out on!

The power one Blackberry Messenger or Facebook status message has towards the promotion of any event is really tremendous! I myself didn’t know much about the event but learnt a lot about it and even want to attend it all because of what I have been exposed to on different social media platforms. Blog posts have been created for the event; such as http://noblegrinders.blogspot.com/2012/03/back-to-city-2012-announcement-list.html , the event has an official Facebook page: Back to the City Festival and a page on the top micro blogging site Twitter @BacktothecitySA.  From what I have observed on these social media platforms; I believe that this event which will be celebrated on one of South Africa’s biggest public holidays (Freedom Day on celebrating our countries liberation) will be a huge success!

Masters of Rhythm

BACK TO THE STREETS

Taking it to the streets:The Masters Of Rhythm Logo

Masters of Rhythm; also referred to as MOR is known as a youth movement towards the celebration of dance. A major part of the movement has to do with hip hop. The event usually takes place at a venue and takes one day, whereby dancers and dance crews battle until there is one ultimate winner! The venue is usually referred to as “the streets” by the dancers. Last year however; the event organisers decided to take a different approach for the event by making it a weekly show on top youth channel VUZU (channel 123 on DSTV).  This brought the event a lot of publicity and a lot of followers for the dance crews that took part in the competition; especially for the winning crew The Reptiles. The show had plenty of viewers and although great judges such as rapper AKA were featured; the show is set to be going back to ‘the streets” again this year during the mid-year. We can all look forward to yet another celebration of dance in our country!

http://www.mastersofrhythmsa.com/index.php

The Rand Easter Show

The banner used for this year's expo

What is the event most South Africans look forward to during Easter? I would say it is the Rand Easter show. It is held each year at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg. It takes place during the Easter time and is taking place from Friday the 6^th of April to Sunday the 15^th of April this year. It features food shows, children’s activities, garden shows, performances, extreme zones and many more fun activities. However; as a PR student, I do not feel like there was proper marketing put into place for this year’s show. In the past years, every person would be talking about the show because of how great it was marketed; but now some people even forgot about it. This is because of the little advertising and broadcasting which was put around the event. However; word of mouth and social media became good tools for the show this year, so I trust that a lot of people will be able to enjoy the great festivities which will be offered this year!

http://www.randshow.co.za/?gclid=CKzkidSDpa8CFc4LtAodqnT-ZA