On Wednesday night, the SABC’s biggest commercial radio station, Metro FM, hosted media and government dignitaries at The Capital Mbombela to announce the return of the Metro FM Music Awards (MMAs) 2023.
During the announcement party, Metro FM’s Lerato Kganyago announced that the awards, which have been absent for five years, will return on April 29 and will be hosted in Mbombela, Mpumalanga.
The ceremony will be broadcast live on SABC1 and supported by various SABC radio stations. They will also be streamed live on SABC Plus and Metro FM’s YouTube channel.
The station issued a call for submissions for consideration in various categories and announced that they will be open for entries from January 19 to February 28.
Only albums, singles and recordings released between February 28, 2022, to February 28, 2023, will be eligible. Submissions can be done on www.metrofmmusicawards.co.za/.
Ms Nada Wotshela, who is Group Executive for SABC Radio, said: “We are excited to bring back one of the SABC’s biggest events that is loved by the millions of our audiences.
“This event has grown to be embraced by the industry and surely has made an indelible mark. Hence, the demand for it remained high even at the time of its short break.”
The Head of the Department for Culture, Sport and Recreation, Mr Godfrey Ntombela, added: “We are delighted to welcome the Metro FM Music Awards back to Mpumalanga Province.
“We strongly believe that this event will reignite tourism, and the fact that we are the host province again is an indication that our province is a perfect destination for tourism and cultural activities.
“The opportunity to host this major event comes at the right time and we are hopeful that it will benefit the creative industry that is still reeling from the dire effects of Covid-19.”
The previous iteration of the awards was hosted at Durban’s ICC back in 2017 and was shrouded in controversy after the late Riky Rick criticised radio stations for not supporting local acts and accused some record labels of “buying” awards.
“90 percent of the s**t I hear on radio is garbage. So if you’re a kid and you’re watching this right now, forget radio.
“If they don’t let you play on radio, you better go to the internet and let your songs pop on the internet,” he said before they cut his mic off.
Shortly after this controversial rant, which came during his acceptance speech for Best Hit Single (“Sidlukotini”), Riky went on to Tweet a line from that very song: "If ni**az can pay for these f***ing awards then my ni*ga I don't want them.”