Pabi Cooper On How Her Amapiano Stardom Wasn’t Part Of The Plan. Over the past year, Pabi Cooper has emerged as one of the Amapiano genre’s biggest pioneers. Her success story in a short period she’s been an artist becomes more interesting considering she never dreamt of being a music superstar.
Speaking at the South African Tourism’s Amapiano To The World Panel in Miami in May, Pabi shared how lockdown birthed her music career when she could not focus on her dream, becoming a football referee. “My story is kind of crazy because I don’t have any musical background. I wasn’t pushing any music, I started as a footballer. I just wanted to be a referee. 2020 when COVID started, they suspended any sports and I was like, ‘What do I do now?’” she said.
The dancer and hitmaker shared how her mom wanted her to stay home during Covid-19 but she was focused on making dance video content on the streets. She revealed how she went on to get Covid-19 whilst shooting some of her videos. “I had a love for dancing because I used to dance at soccer games… that’s when I decided to just post on my Instagram. That’s when I decided to create content. “I had like short-term goals — I just wanted 20K followers. ‘What was the next goal? 100k followers,’ you know?,” Pabi explained.
She also credits Tik-Tok on how she went viral. The singer said she jumped on the platform when it was introduced and took advantage of how everyone was on their phones whilst locked down during the pandemic and she grew her following from there.
Pabi revealed that after making ISIPHITHIPHITHI, she decided to take her music career seriously and remained consistent as she could not go back to football.
The award winning singer was one of the many Amapiano stars from South Africa who took over the Afro Nation festival in Miami this past weekend.
