2018 AWARDS CRITERIA & MUSIC SUBMISSIONS OPEN NOW

With the 2018 awards approaching this October, music submissions are now open! The list will be made available to the 21 music judges. 

A guide to the nomination process:
1 Criteria.
2 Music judges.
3 The public vote.


1) Criteria:

  • Act must be aged 16 or over and based in Scotland.

  • The act must be formed for longer than 6 months and have music made available to the general public (whether in physical or digital form) within the last year, between August 2017-18.

  • The act must also be appropriate for the specific category they are being nominated for.

2) Judges:

  • Each music award has three music judges who are specialist to that award/genre. The music judges will act as a group and select four shortlisted acts to represent the award. A public vote will take place on Monday 15th – 19th October to decide the winner.

  • The judges decision must be made solely on the quality of the music not commercial success.

  • The 2018 music judges will be announced in September.

3) The Public Vote:

  • The public vote (limited to 1 per IP address) will be open for 5 days to decide the winners for each of the 7 awards.

  • The winners will then be announced at the main event on Thursday 25th October at Saint Luke's, Glasgow.

The seven SAMAs are:

Best Rock/Alternative in association with Eventbrite UK
Best Live Act in association with XpoNorth
Best Newcomer in association with The Academy of Music & Sound
Best Hip Hop in association with Help Musicians UK
Best Metal in association with Hard Rock Café Glasgow
Best Electronic in association with citizenM
Best Acoustic in association with Assai UK

Artists can submit entries to the music judges below.

The 2018 judges are as follows:

Best Newcomer

Nicola Meighan - BBC Radio Scotland

Nadine Walker - Tenement TV

Craig Gornall - Alive & Amplified

Best Acoustic

Gill Maxwell - Scottish Music Centre

Alistair Braidwood - Scots Whae Hae!

Keith Ingram - Assai UK

Best Live Act

Tallah Brash - The Skinny

Joe Ratray - Synergy Concerts

Holly Calder - Freakender

Best Rock/Alternative

Mike Jonns - This Feeling

Ross Calder - AGP Aberdeen

Kayleigh McLaughlan - Resonate

Best Electronic

Sarra Wild - 0141

Sofay - Artist

Claire Francis - The Skinny

Best Hip Hop

Hannah Westwater - Music Journalist

Alana Hepburn - Music Promoter

Jonathan Rimmer - Scotland Stand Up

Best Metal

Ross Munro - Pit Troll

Jonathan Almond - Triple G

Harris Douglas - HD Events

Please note submissions are now closed.

18-09 SAMA18 Poster.png
Admin