31 Aug 2026

The Botswana Musicians Union BOMU handed out its awards at the Gaborone International Convention Centre on Saturday and the results scrambled the storyline that had been building since nominations started in June. 

Artists with the highest number of nomination did not necessarily walk away with the biggest wins and the night’s most talked-about outcome came from the artists who arguably should have not dominated it. 

Han C was the season’s nomination front-runner, with six nods spread across Best Male Artist, Album of the Year and Song of the Year, among others, largely thanks to BOMU’s extended two-year eligibility window pulling his 2024 projects, ‘Bosa’ and ‘Mamasita’ into this cycle.

On the night, though, he converted just one of those six into silverware, Best Amapiano. The win landed awkwardly with fans and industry watchers, since Amapiano is not a genre closely associated with Han C’s catalogue, and the result has been the subject of pointed conversations since the show wrapped, with some questioning how the category was judged.

Issah Sisdoh, who arrived with four nominations and had been billed as the breakout story of the nomination round, had a cleaner night. 

She took home Best Female Artist and Best House/Dance EP/Album for ‘Echo of the Healing’, converting two of her four nods into wins and backing up her status as one of the season’s genuine multi-category threats. Her other nominations, Best Newcomer and Best Collaboration for ‘Vumadlodzi’, did not convert.

DM Guys had arguably the most efficient night of any act, walking away with both Song of the Year and the newly introduced Most Viral Song award, almost certainly built on the strength of ‘Raskanta Tobetsa Pina’, their entry in both races. Taking the show’s two most publicly visible prizes in one night gives them a strong claim to being the story of the ceremony, even without the nomination count that Han C or Issah Sisdoh carried 

Best Newcomer went to Tefo Bright, edging out a category that had also included Issah Sisdoh, Jinger Stone and Kesego Lysson, a competitive field that made the win one of the night’s tighter calls. Album of the Year went to Dada Kavino for ‘Sebaga’, beating out Han C’s ‘Bosa’, Ancestral Rituals ‘Amadlozi’, and Shumba Ratsega’s ‘Lorato Ga Se Ntwa’. It is a notable result given how much of the pre-show conversation had centred on Han C’s extended eligibility and his presence in that category.

The evening reinforced a familiar truth about awards shows: getting the most nominations doesn’t guarantee the most wins. Han C came in as the clear front-runner but left with only one trophy, and a contested one at that. By contrast, DM Guys and Issa Sisdoh, despite having far fewer nominations, ended up as the night’s biggest winners. Add in Dada Kavino’s surprise Album of the Year win and Tefo Bright’s Best Newcomer victory, and the wins ended up far more evenly distributed than the nomination totals had predicted.ENDS