To this day the artist continues to gain acclaim both with audiences and critics as he is recognised for his performing and song writing talents. 2013 had Elvis obtainanother 3 SAMA nominations for his album JOURNEY , for Male Artist Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year (“LIFELINE”), winning a SAMA in the Album of the year category.
September 2013 saw the release of “AFRIKAANS”, an album that made Elvis the first Afrikaans artist to scale the Top Ten of the iTunes Store chart – an honour he managed on the first day of the Album’s release.
This album was certified a Gold-selling album a mere two months later and Elvis walked away with 2 Ghoema’s, namely for BEST MALE ARTIST and ALBUM OF THE YEAR, the highest honours in Afrikaans music. In September of 2014 this album achievedPLATINUM status. Hot on the heels of this achievement was yet another SAMA for this home grown talent, for BEST CONTEMPORARY ALBUM for “Afrikaans” and then a TEMPO award, once again giving “AFRIKAANS” the title of Album of the Year. 2015 saw Elvis once again excel in his creative exploits.
The release of his single “Shine” once again made him the top selling SA Artist on iTunes in its first week of release and set the tone for another exciting year.
In 2016 he released his second Afrikaans album, namely “Êrens in die middle van nêrens” and this album also produced a string of top 10 radio singles and Platinum status for Elvis.
Elvis broke yet another record, this time for the highest number of Ghoema nominations for any single artist in the history of this award. He then promptly went on to win the most Ghoema awards ever in the 5 year history of the awards, in the following categories:
• Album of the year: Erens in die Middel van Nerens
• Male Artist of the year
• Best Music Video: Elvis Blue – Die Hemel (regie deur Ryan Kruger)
• Best Songwriter
• Best Contemporary Album by a Male Artist: Elvis Blue – Erens in die Middel van Nerens
• Best Live DVD: Laurika Rauch & Elvis Blue – Hart en See
- Ringtone of the year: Elvis Blue – Die Hemel which was downloaded more than 280 000times.
The platinum selling album also won a SAMA in 2016 for Album of the year, making Elvis Blue the only Idols winner ever to win at least one SAMA for each album ever released. 2016 was a busy year for Elvis, as he also released his third English album, Optics, with the first single off this album, The Tide winning Elvis a “Wes Kaap Bokkie” award from Bok FM for Best music video.
This album also won an OFM award for Best Local Album. 2017 saw the release of Die Brug, an album that sees one of SA’s best songwriters combine traditional beats with Afrikaans sound in an ingenious and rhythmic blend, showing the artist’s bent consistent reinvention. This album delivered 2 top 10 radio singles and once again garnered many awards, including an OFM Music Award for Best Local Album, and Album of the year in the Wes Kaapse Bokkies competition and a Tempo nomination. The music video for the third single off the album, called “Werner”, also saw Elvis attempting to tell the story of the song almostentirely using dogs – Elvis being the only human in the video, something that has never been done in SA before.
This video was one of 10 winning video projects selected by Kyknet in their MVP competition. This album once again made Elvis the most nominated artist in the 2018 Ghoema awards season, with 7 nominations in the following categories.
• Best composition of the year for Die Brug
• Best compostion of the year for Elke Hart
• Best composition of the year for Werner
• Best composition of the year along with Riana Nel for Skree by Steve Hofmeyr
• Best male contemporary album
• Songwriter of the year
• Best producer along with Ewald Janse van Rensburg
Elvis doesn’t only work hard on stage, but also off stage. Well known for his songwriting abilities, in 2015 Elvis was honoured by piers in the industry when he won the coveted Wawela Music award for Best Male Artist & Composer. Within his field he continues to be a force for good, striving to raise awareness as a CANSA ambassador, and channelling funds and effort towards both the Casterbridge Music Academy in Whiteriver and Life Community Services in George. His own initiative, called The Cookiejar, has enabled people who attend his shows to give directly towards specific projects by simply dropping their change in a cookie jar. Elvis shares the target or project goal during the shows, harnessing the collective power of good to address areas of need.
More than R190 000 was raised for specific projects in 2016 and in 2017 Elvis mobilised fans to raise more than R100 000 for disaster relief in the Garden Route area after it was ravaged by fires.Elvis Blue is a man with a mission – and no doubt this gifted artist and songwriter will enchant
