33rd San Diego Music Awards honor Sara Petite, Jonny Tarr, Thee Sacred Souls

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The 2024 San Diego Music Awards ceremony was held Tuesday, April 30 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, honoring regional musicians in the genres of rock, indie, alternative, pop, R&B, funk, soul, rap, hip-hop, world, country, Americana, folk, acoustic, blues and jazz. Awards are also given for local recordings and videos.

The SDMAs were started in 1991 by founder and organizer Kevin Hellman and are now in their 33rd year running. Hellman is also known for being the publisher of former alternative weekly San Diego CityBeat and SLAMM magazine.

To be nominated, bands need to either submit their material for consideration on SDMA’s website or be nominated by members of the award program’s academy.

This year, soul-pop darlings Thee Sacred Souls won the Artist of the Year award, a prize that honors general excellence from any genre.

Alternative rock band The Suede Grenades won Best New Artist — their debut album "Heaven Must Be Grey" came out in September.

Pop artist Jonny Tarr walked away with both the Album of the Year and Best Pop Album award for "The Rules."

Another multi-award winner was Sara Petite, who won Best Country or Americana Artist as well as Best Country or Americana Album for "The Empress."

Americana artist Kimmi Bitter won Song of the Year for "Aquamarine." Bitter was also one of the performers during Tuesday night's awards ceremony, along with We The Commas, Ash Easton and more.

Stevie Salas was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and also performed at the ceremony.

Proceeds from the event, which is a fundraiser for nonprofit San Diego Music Foundation, goes toward buying guitars for schools from Taylor Guitars, which was founded in El Cajon.

For a complete list of the 2024 nominees, go here. Here's the list of this year's winners in each category: