South Australian Music Awards Finalists Announced

Music SA have announced the finalists for the SAM Awards' Peer-Voted and People's Choice categories for the third annual event.

The nominations are led by political hip hop duo A.B. Original with six nominations alongside pop's Tkay Maidza with four nominations.

Breakthrough artists include South Sudanese-born rapper DyspOra and indie folk singer Naomi Keyte.

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There were over 6,500 individual votes cast across the awards. Check out the list of all the finalists below.

The South Australia Music Peer-Voted Awards

Best Studio

Chapel Lane Studios
Hillside Recordings
Island Studios
Stormfront Productions
Wizard Tone Studios

Best Engineer
Gabs Agostino
Kiah Gossner
Matt Hills
Simon Kither
Tom Barnes

Best Music Festival/Event

Blenheim Music & Camping Festival
Futuresounds
Porch Sessions
Scumfest
WOMADelaide

Best Music Venue

Crown & Anchor Hotel
Exeter Hotel
Fat Controller
Grace Emily Hotel
Jive

Best Manager

Ben Martin
Craig Lock
Matthew Hayward
Sian Walden
Tom Gordon

Best Cover Art

Capital Waste & Jamie Brockenbrow - Space Bong’s ‘Dead In Paradise’
Hebe Sayce - Neon Tetra’s ‘Relections’
Henry Stentiford - The Bitter Darlings ‘Stuart Highway’
Nic Ames & Sam Kruckemeyer - Kaurna Cronin’s Southern Loss
Todd Fischer - Donnarumma’s ‘Billy Billy’

Best Music Video

Aaron Schuppan – Cosmo Thundercat’s ‘Warning Bell
Kieran Ellis-Jones – Sleep Talk’s ‘Mother’
Lewis Brideson – Donnarumma’s ‘Love Your Man’
O’Foley – Standard Union’s ‘I Don’t Care’
Richard Coburn – A.B. Original’s ‘January 26th’

Best Song

A.B. Original – January 26th feat. Dan Sultan
Bad//Dreems – Mob Rule
Timberwolf – Washed Out
Tkay Maidza - Simulation
West Thebarton – Moving Out

Best New Artist

Bec Stevens
Donnarumma
Dyspora
Heaps Good Friends
Lonelyspeck

Best Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island Artist

A.B. Original
Corey Theatre
Glenn Skuthorpe

Best Group

A.B. Original
Bad//Dreems
Battlehounds
Cosmo Thundercat
Wanderers

Best Male Artist

Adam Page
Dyspora
Ross McHenry
PNK FME
Thom Lion

Best Female Artist

Allume
Bec Stevens
Hunt
Naomi Keyte
Tkay Maidza

Best Release

A.B. Original
Bad//Dreems
Lonelyspeck
Naomi Keyte
Tkay Maidza

2017 SAM AWARDS JUDGING PANEL

Alice Fraser (Lunatic Entertainment), Anne Wiberg (Music SA Board), Bonnie Dalton (Minnow & Co), Dan Cribb (The Music), Dan Sant (The Harbour Agency), DotMarkek (Double J), Emma Coyle (Music SA/Sundial), Greg Carey (Grow Yourself Up), Harvey Saward (Remote Control Records), Jess Beston (Tiny Monster), Johann Ponniah (I Oh You), Luke Penman (Radio Adelaide), Matt Horvath (Clarity Records), Rebecca Young (Collective Artists), Richard Moffat (Way Over There), Sose Fuamoli (AU Review), Spoz (Spoz’s Rant), Tam Boakes (Jive), Trials (A.B. Original) and Troy Sincock (Fresh 92.7)

The South Australian Music People's Choice Awards

Blues/Roots Award

Cal Williams Jr
Donnarumma
Glass Skies
Lazy Eye
Wanderers

Country Award

The Bitter Darlings
Hana & Jessie-Lee
TheHeggarties
Kiera
Workhorse

Electronic Award

Abbey Howlett
Hartway
Nakatomi
Southpaw
We May Be Creatures

Experimental Award

Cobra
The Cortex Shift
Darknife
Thanes
Timberwolf

Folk Award

Banjo Jackson
Kaurna Cronin
Naomi Keyte
Tom West
The Winter Gyspy

Heavy Award

Behold The Sea
Ice On Mercury
Sleep Talk
Terminal Zero
Wounded Pig

Hip Hop Award

A.B. Original
Daydream Fever
Hinkey The Snail
DyspOra
3SIDEZ

Jazz/Art Music Award

Alzarin Crimson
Angus Mason
Ashley Hribar
Lone Soul Syndicate
Ross McHenry

Pop Award

Dino Jag
Germein Sisters
Heaps Good Friends
Rachael Leahcar
Tkay Maidza

Punk Award

Ambleside
Bec Stevens
Grenadiers
She’s The Band
Young Offenders

Rock Award

Bad//Dreems
Baltimore Poet
Cosmo Thundercat
The Motive
West Thebarton

World Music Award

Adam Page
The Coconut Kids
Dadanii Okwabi Damushiensemble
Daniela Ion
RAVie

The South Australian Music Awards takes place on 9 November at Thebby Lane.