Uncle Waffles

Born Lungelihle Zwane in Eswatini on 30 March 2000, Uncle Waffles was raised largely by her grandmother and reconciled with her mother only as a teenager. She grew up on South African house and kwaito, citing Black Coffee, Lebo Mathosa and DJ Kent, and worked as a television presenter on Eswatini's Studio1 before moving to South Africa for university.

It was at the television studio that she first tried DJing, and she taught herself the craft properly during the 2020 lockdowns, reportedly practising for eight hours a day. Filling in for a cancelled DJ at Soweto's Zone 6 nightclub in October 2021, a clip of her dancing to Young Stunna's “Adiwele” while she played went viral, introducing her to a wider audience beyond South Africa's amapiano scene, the log-drum-driven house style that grew out of townships around Johannesburg.

Her debut single, “Tanzania”, released in March 2022 alongside her first EP, Red Dragon, reached number one in South Africa and has been certified platinum seven times there. Billboard later called her the Princess of Amapiano.

She has kept dance central to her sets ever since, building choreography into her performances rather than treating it as separate from the DJing. Touring has taken her to the UK and Ireland alongside DJ Maphorisa and Focalistic, then to the United States and Australia, making her one of the more recognisable faces of amapiano outside southern Africa.

A second EP, Asylum, followed in March 2023 behind the single “Yahyuppiyah” and was certified gold within a week of release. Mixmag and Audiomack both named her among the year's breakthrough dance acts.