Judges are usually industry peeps such TV producers. I'm notsure what criteria is used to select them. These such people are aske dto listen to all the entrants and plot their preferences on a rate sheet that includes, marketability, musicality, etc etc. They will select their five best out of all the entrants in each genre and depending on how many other votes they got from other judges, those that scored the most points become teh 5 nominees that are announced to the public.
I'm not sure if this is best system for the SAMAS coz one can't rule out that peeps will be lazy to go thru all the entrants properly esp those that may never have heard of and that might they be biased in their judging.
The METRO awards nominees are selected by the public?