Uncle Waffles hosted by Spotify in France
MBABANE – Welcome to France!
Amapiano sensation Uncle Waffles performed in Cannes, France, on Wednesday.
Uncle Waffles, born Lungelihle Zwane, is a liSwati-born DJ and record producer now based in South Africa. She is noted for her work in the Amapiano genre and her dance abilities, with Billboard describing her as the ‘Princess of Amapiano’.
She has caught the attention of some of the biggest international musicians in the game, including Drake. Uncle Waffles recently went viral after Beyoncé played her song Tanzania during the Renaissance World Tour. The footage of the ‘Lemonade’ hitmaker’s dancers entertaining the crowd in Sweden’s Friends Arena by dancing to the song made headlines and became a hot topic. She recently got nominated for the upcoming BETAwards ‘Best International
Act’.
After her show, she was briefly interviewed by Spotify News, where she shared about her experience on the decks. “I’m trying to remain grateful by always pressing play on the deck and putting pause on a social life; it’s dark, but it’s the truth. I am trying to remain very grateful; everything is happening so fast. Sometimes it’s so real that I can’t even grasp it, so I’m always like, did this really happen?” Waffles said.
Controversy
Uncle Waffles’s recent BET nomination has sparked controversy among South Africans (SA) after she was clearly mentioned to be from Eswatini (Swaziland), and SA citizens felt left out. SA rapper KO has also been nominated for Best International Act in the upcoming BET Awards. They will go up against each other as well as African superstars Ayra Starr, Burna Boy and Libianca, UK artists Stormzy, Ella Mai, Central Cee, L7nnon from Brazil and Tiakola from France.
Big SA names came through to congratulate the star on such a huge nomination so early in her career. From the likes of Nadia Nakai, DJ Maphorisa, Okay Wasabi, Major League DJz, Anatii, Musa Keys, Simz Ngema, Focalistic and Boity, just to name a few.
The comments ranged from fire emojis to a number of congratulations stringed together from SA personalities showing a lot of love to the Swati-born star.
Other artists, including Rouge, defended Uncle Waffles following the outrage for writing Swati over SA for her BET Award.
Taking to Twitter, Rouge came to his fellow artist’s defence, arguing that the anger towards Uncle Waffles is weird. The Bongo Zaka hitmaker said that people should celebrate Waffle instead of attacking her.