Uncle Waffles On Being A DJ And A Bonafide Performer.The Eswatini native’s career kick-started overnight due to the power of social media when she reached millions of viewers. It was October of 2021 at Zone 6 nightclub in Soweto, South Africa when she filled in for a withdrawn DJ and didn’t know her life would change forever. Lungelihle Zwane, formally known as Uncle Waffles, is at the forefront of the music scene through her contributions to DJing and producing.
Today at age 23, she’s been named the Princess of Amapiano, a genre originating from South Africa known for a jazzy, house music feel. She’s proven that a DJ can be known for more than just putting together great music, but also for being a bonafide performer.
“I think that’s something that a lot of people know me for not only just performance but also for showing that DJs especially in the Amapiano genre can headline…even though I’m just behind the decks, I can still headline your show,’’ she. said. And headlining is exactly what she’d been doing, tackling the 2023 Coachella stage as the first Amapiano genre act in the festival’s history.
Initially, Waffles never dreamed of becoming a DJ, but while working for a local Eswatini TV station in 2020, she became mesmerized by the art form. She just wanted to learn, so a DJ who often visited the office dedicated his time to teaching her, not knowing she could fall in love with something she wasn’t into. “He said you only need two months to learn; the rest is just practice. So it just went from randomly asking someone one day to me spending nine months – eight hours every single day learning,” she said.
