Makhadzi has won Best Traditional Music Album at the 32nd South African Music Awards, adding another major South African music industry honour to the career of one of Limpopo’s most prominent contemporary performers.
Her album Sesi Ka Rose, released under Makhadzi Entertainment, was named the winner at SAMA32 on Saturday night at the Sun City Superbowl in the North West.
The award places Makhadzi among the night’s recognised artists and gives further recognition to a body of work rooted in the musical traditions of Limpopo while reaching a national popular audience.
Makhadzi entered SAMA32 with Sesi Ka Rose also placing her among the Top Five nominees for Female Artist of the Year. The nomination put her alongside Hle, Simphiwe Dana, Shekhinah and Anica Kiana in one of the ceremony’s broadest individual categories.
The Best Traditional Music Album award is more specific. It recognises the album within the traditional music category, where Sesi Ka Rose competed against other nominated projects.
The victory is not Makhadzi’s first SAMA recognition in the traditional music category.
She previously won Best Traditional Album at the 29th South African Music Awards for African Queen 2.0.
Her latest victory therefore extends an established relationship between the singer and the SAMAs, while also demonstrating the continuing importance of traditional musical influences in her work.
Makhadzi has built her career around a distinctive musical identity strongly associated with Limpopo. Her rise has helped bring music influenced by the province’s cultural traditions to a large national audience and, increasingly, international listeners.
Her SAMA32 nomination material described her among the leading female artists in this year’s competition, with Sesi Ka Rose providing the basis for her Female Artist of the Year nomination.
The album’s success at SAMA32 comes in a category that has historically provided space for South African musical traditions that do not necessarily fit within the country’s contemporary pop and urban genres.
For Makhadzi, the award consequently represents recognition not only of an individual album but of the musical identity that has been central to her career.
The result also strengthens her position among South Africa’s most consistently recognised female recording artists.
Her career has included awards outside the SAMAs. In 2024, she won the BET Award for Best International Act, adding an international accolade to her domestic success.
At SAMA32, however, the focus was firmly on South African music.
The Best Traditional Music Album trophy for Sesi Ka Rose gives Makhadzi another national award and follows her earlier SAMA victory for African Queen 2.0.
It also gives her a second opportunity to add to her SAMA32 haul, with the Female Artist of the Year result remaining part of the ceremony’s Top Five awards.
Whatever the outcome of that category, Makhadzi leaves the Best Traditional Music Album competition as its winner.
For the Limpopo singer, Sesi Ka Rose has now become another SAMA-winning album adding a new chapter to a career that has repeatedly brought regional musical influences to South Africa’s national awards stage.