It’s awards time for the Afrikaans music community again with the third annual Geraas music awards, for which the nominations have recently been announced.
Geraas is the weekly Afrikaans music show on SABC2.
This year’s awards cover 27 categories. Most of these comprise entries submitted by the public, but a panel of judges selected the finalists for the lifetime achievement award, the most stylish South African artist, the best-selling Afrikaans album, the best South African music event and the best live performer categories.
According to Geraas executive producer Erik de Jager, it is “high time Afrikaans music received more mainstream recognition”. He said the awards are a means to accomplish this goal.
The awards “not only reward Afrikaans musical achievements, but also make sure that people know what is going on”, he said.
Karen Zoid ranks first with five nominations, followed by Cutt Glas member Anna Davel with four.
The nominees for album of the year are Zoid for her acclaimed Chasing the Sun, the evergreen Anton Goosen for Vis innie Bos, ddisselblom for their eponymous album, Laurinda Hofmeyr for the poetic Ligdag and Davel for Gypsy.
Laurinda Hofmeyr, Zoid and Davel’s albums have also been nominated for best adult contemporary album, alongside Amanda Strydom’s Verspreide Donderbuie and Herman van den Berg’s Proe die Aarde.
Delta Blue, Sarah Theron, Rocco de Villiers and Penny Whistle Classics stand side by side in the best jazz album category, while Koos Kombuis, Piet Botha, Zoid, Valiant Swart and the overrated Beeskraal (sneaking in despite their line-up woes and legal battles) compete for best rock album.
The nominations in the best pop album are Jaco and Joe, Dalinda Snyman, Nicholis Louw, the rather unpleasant Kurt Darren and Juanita du Plessis.
The song of the year award is a rather sad indication of Afrikaans music fans’ preferences. Between the Campbells, Kurt Darren, Steve Hofmeyr, Nadine and Guillaume, there isn’t much originality or creativity, not to mention style, making it a rather bleak snapshot of the most popular Afrikaans songs of the year.
Other categories include best spiritual album, best songwriter, best newcomer, best sound engineer, best video, best humorous album (somewhere, somehow, there are people who think Bill Flynn and Thys die Bosveldklong are funny) and best performance of the year (Brasse vannie Kaap compete with Steve Hofmeyr and Kobus!, among others).
No entries were apparently received for the best hip-hop and R&B award, a new category.
The awards will be announced on November 17 at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg.