South Australian Music Awards announce 2021 nominees

With just under a month to go until its 2021 edition kicks off, the South Australian Music Awards have unveiled the list of nominees for this year’s awards.

Following a year which saw the likes of Motez and Wing Defence named as big winners of the 2020 awards, the 2021 edition of the South Australian Music Awards is back, unveiling its list of nominees today.

This year sees a number of familiar faces amongst the finalists, in addition to a number of first-timers, including the likes of Teenage Joans, Bermuda Bay, Jess Johns, MARLON X RULLA, and Mum Friends, just to name a few. The incredible range of talent shows that even in another year on hold, South Aussie talent was able to shine brightly.

While the public voting for the People’s Choice categories closed on Sunday, October 11th (attracting 11,604 votes), a local judging panel internally decided the 2021 Industry/Major award nominees that were put forward to a national panel of 15 national and local judges to decide on this year’s finalists.

Set to take place at the Old Adelaide Gaol on November 18th, the ceremony will be hosted by South Australian media personality and presenter Shanelle Franklin (formerly SAFM, Jam LIVE and Rip It Up) who has worked with Music SA for many years, replacing triple j Good Nights host Bridget Hustwaite, who was forced to cancel her commitments due to border closures.

“I’m gutted that I am unable to make it as your MC for the SA Music Awards but I’ll still be cheering on from Victoria and I look forward to celebrating with everybody next year when hopefully, border restrictions are nothing but a distant memory!” Hustwaite said in a statement.

is thrilled that the SAM’s can go ahead to celebrate the achievements of South Australian musicians and industry workers this past year.

“Another difficult year for SA’s live music industry has inspired an incredible amount of creativity and perseverance from musicians and industry workers,” said Chair of Music SA, Anne Wiberg, “from outstanding new music releases to COVID-safe events such as Summer Sounds and One12 Festival.”

The full list of nominees can be found below.

Check out a recap of the 2020 South Australian Music Awards:

2021 South Australian Music Awards Finalists

Major/Industry Voted Awards Finalists

Best Studio (Presented by Adelaide Music Collective)

Chapel Lane Studios
Electric Ant Records
Stone Shed Studio
Wizard Tone Studios
Wundenberg’s Recording Studio

Best Studio Engineer/producer (Presented by SAE Institute Adelaide)

Cactus Cactus Sound (Ryan Martin John)
Jarred Nettle
Kiah Gossner
Lewis Wundenberg
Suture Mastering

Best Live Technician (Presented by Novatech)

Dagger’s Production (Nathan D’Agostino)
Lisa Lane Collins
Luke Hancock
Michael Wickens
Patrick Lockwood
Peter Wing

Best Major Festival/event (Presented by MOSHTIX)

Adelaide Guitar Festival
Beer & BBQ Homebrewed
Summer Sounds Festival
The Local
WOMADelaide

Best Small Festival/Event (Presented by Pirate Life)

Folkloria Festival
Garden Daze
One12 Festival
Space Jams South Coast Tour
Utopian State

Best Venue (Presented by AHA)

Grace Emily Hotel
Jive
Lion Arts Factory
The Wheatsheaf Hotel
Unibar ADL
Vintage Vulture

Best Cover Art (Presented by Version Design)

Wolf & Cub – Nil (Luke Byrne)
The Mondays – No Sugar Sprite (Arkadia Visuals)
Kaurna Cronin – Aloft In Blue (Julia Thornberg – Thorsoee)
Heaps Good Friends – Up Close and Personal (Ashley Giles)
Holas May – Block Letter (Angus Smith/Angvs)
Teenage Joans – Taste of Me (Samuel Graves & Eve Burner)

Best Manager (Presented by Association of Artist Managers)

Planet Shhh
Rachel Whitford
Sebastian James
Sian Walden (Little Acorn Music)
Diana Sautelle

Best Music Video (Presented by Alpha Box & Dice)

Slowmango – Thairaide (Kaspar Schmidt Mumm & Emmaline Zanelli)
Teenage Joans – Something About Being Sixteen (Jack Bielby & Thomas Schaefer)
TOWNS – Swimming (Thomas Schaefer & Jack Bielby)
Neofix – Freedom (Neofix)
Glowing – Poppy (Harry Nathan)

Best Song (Presented by APRA AMCOS)

George Alice – Teenager
Motez – Reset
Stellie – 22 Pieces
Teenage Joans – Something About Being Sixteen
Wolf & Cub – Blue State

Best New Artist (Presented by WOMADelaide)

Teenage Joans
Mum Friends
Rocky’s Pride & Joy
Tilly Tjala Thomas
Jess Johns
MARLON X RULLA

Best Group (Presented by Derringers Music)

Bermuda Bay
Teenage Joans
The Empty Threats
TOWNS
The Mondays

Best Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander Artist (Presented by Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music – CASM)

Dem Mob
MARLON X RULLA
Rob Edwards
Tilly Tjala Thomas

Best Solo Artist (Presented by Media Arts Lawyers)

George Alice
MANE
Motez
Stellie
Tom West

Best Release (Presented by themusic.com.au)

MANE – Coping Mechanisms
Motez – Reset
Pinkish Blu – People Just Do Good Things Sometimes
Stellie – Stellie (Self-titled)
Teenage Joans – Taste Of Me
Tom West – I’m Livin’

Best Music Educator (Presented by SAMII)

Abbey Howlett
Alison Hams
Ben Smith
Jess Day
Julian Ferraretto
Paige Court

Best Innovation (Presented by CityMag)

Against The Grain – ATG Sessions
Play/Pause/Play – The Sounds of South Australia Podcast
Summer Sounds Festival
WOMADelaide x NSS Academy
Carclew Music At Work – BLKMPIRE

People’s Choice Awards Finalists

Blues & Roots (Presented by UniBar)

Cal Williams Jr
Mojo Dingo
Sean Kemp
Sturt Avenue
Trav Collins

Country (Presented by Grace Emily Hotel)

Jimmybay
Mark Curtis and the Flannelettes
Matt Ward
Michaela Jenke
Ricky Albeck & The Belair Line Band

Electronic (Presented by Fat Controller)

Jack Truant
Kelly Matejcic, Krunk & Restricted
Motez
Stace Cadet
V O E

Experimental (Presented by The Lab)

Georgia Oatley
Slowmango
SODA
Sons of Zoku
The Empty Threats

Folk (Presented by The Wheatsheaf Hotel)

Alison Newman
B.S Roberts
Jess Johns
Siberian Tiger
Trent Worley

Heavy (Presented by ARMI)

alt.
Dirty Pagans
Kitchen Witch
No No No No No
SIGNV/S

Hip-Hop (Presented by The Gov)

Boffa
Dem Mob
EAST AV3
GOLDN
Stefan Rossi

Jazz (Presented by the Gilbert St Hotel)

Chelsea Lee
Christina Guala Saxophone Quartet
ER@SER DESCRIPTION
Max Grynchuk

Pop (Presented by Lion Arts Factory)

G-Nation
George Alice
Kyan Burns
Lilac Cove
Rachael Leahcar

Punk (Presented by Three D Radio)

AGAPANTHER
Bitchspawn
LOLA
Teenage Joans
Wing Defence

Rock (Presented by Jive)

Druid Fluids
LILY ROSE
Oscar The Wild
TOWNS
Wolf & Cub

Soul/Funk/R&B (Presented by Woodville Town Hall)

Dino Jag
Dojo Rise
LilyMay
Mum Thinks Blue
Wanderers

2021 South Australian Music Awards

Thursday, November 18th
Old Adelaide Gaol (18 Gaol Rd, Adelaide, Kaurna Land)
Tickets: Moshtix

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.