South Australian Music Awards Open Public Votes & Announce Henry Wagons As Host

The South Australian Music Awards have announced the nominees for their 29 categories celebrating the greatest talent the state has to offer the Australian industry, as well as announcing renowned singer-songwriter Henry Wagons as the evening's MC. 

Held on Thursday 9 November at newly developed 'venue within a venue' Thebby Lane (Thebarton Theatre), the SAM Awards are broken into two main subsets — peer-voted (such as Best Studio, Best Engineer, Best Song, Best Group and several more) and public-voted, the forms for which are this year being hosted right here at theMusic.com.au.

Open now, the public-voted categories include awards for Blues/Roots, Country, Electronic, Experimental, Folk, Heavy, Hip Hop, Jazz/Art Music, Pop, Punk, Rock and World Music. Punters are able to submit their favourites over the next three weeks, before voting closes on 31 August.

Among the more-than-140 acts to choose from, there are plenty of much-loved fan favourites filling the ranks, including the likes of Bad//Dreems, Tkay Maidza, Bec Stevens, Heaps Good Friends, Horror My Friend, West Thebarton, Grenadiers, Germein Sister, A.B. Original, Abstract The Light, Sleep Talk, Timberwolf, The Winter Gypsy, Lonelyspeck and stacks more.

The winners will be announced at the SAM Awards ceremony in November, which will also feature five live performances along with entertainment from DJs, an evening feast and six taps of local craft beer from the good folks at Little Bang Brewing Co.

For his part, Wagons sounds particularly chuffed to be on board, effusing in a statement: "I'm really looking forward to a fantastic night, knitting together these 29 awards into one gargantuan celebration of South Australia's finest! It'll be a night of nights... Bring it on!"

Early-bird tickets to the 2017 SAM Awards are available now until Friday 1 September via the event's website.

Use the banner below to head to the forms to get your vote on for this year's finalists.