Uncle Waffles

Zwane was born^[2] and raised in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).^[3] She didn't know her parents and had been brought up by her grandma through her childhood years, until she reconciled with her mother as a teenager with whom she had a strained relationship thereafter.^[9] Zwane grew up listening to South African house and kwaito music from artists such as Black Coffee, Lebo Mathosa and DJ Kent.^[6] Before her success as a DJ, Zwane used to be a television presenter on Studio1 on Eswatini TV, but was replaced in January 2022 after parting from the show.^[1][10] It was here that she first was introduced to DJ'ing by a friend who also worked at the studio, as there was a fifteen-year old set of DJ decks there.^[6] She then emigrated to South Africa to attend university.^[3]

Uncle Waffles learned how to DJ in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns,^[11][12] and claims to have practiced for eight hours each day.^[6] She signed with South African creative agency KreativeKornerr, who managed to book gigs for her in the country's "heavily saturated" music industry.^[6] After filling in for a withdrawn DJ at the Zone 6 nightclub in Soweto in October 2021, she gained prominence after a video of her dancing to the song "Adiwele" by Young Stunna during her set went viral^{[6][13][1][14]} and would begin openly endorsing her on the platform.^[15] Uncle Waffles soon ventured into music production,^[16] and released her debut single "Tanzania" in March 2022 in anticipation of her debut extended play (EP), Red Dragon, which was released later that month.^[17] The single, which had reportedly taken her three months to perfect,^[6] was ranked by Rolling Stone as the eighth best afropop song of 2022, with critics describing her as "a global ambassador for amapiano".^[5] In April 2022, Uncle Waffles embarked on her first-ever tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland.^[18][19] The tour was closely interlinked with a series of shows organized by Piano People, which she headlined alongside DJ Maphorisa and Focalistic, and is deemed the first all-star amapiano tour in the region.^[1]

Uncle Waffles released her debut music video for the track "Tanzania" in September 2022.^[20] In that same month, Uncle Waffles announced that she would be hosting a residency on BBC Radio 1.^[21][22] She was the only DJ that performed at the 2022 Global Citizen Festival in Accra.^[11][23] She partnered with KFC South Africa to launch an exclusive "Uncle Waffles burger" which was made available for purchase in local branches in December 2022,^[24] and later again in September 2023.^[25] She then embarked on a concert tour of the United States,^[26] and then Australia.^[4] British publication Mixmag hailed Uncle Waffles as one of the top breakthrough DJs of the year 2022 worldwide.^[27] Streaming platform Audiomack also hailed her as an "#UpNow" artist in March 2023.^[28] Uncle Waffles' second EP, Asylum, was released in March 2023 and featured the track "Yahyuppiyah",^[29] which had been released as the first single from the project.^[30] The EP was certified gold by the Recording Industry of South Africa (RISA) within one week of its release.^[31] In April 2023, she became the first amapiano musician to ever perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.^[6][32] Her song "Tanzania" was sampled by American singer Beyoncé in a dance break on the Renaissance World Tour setlist, to which Uncle Waffles reacted with the statement "I'm crying, wow," on Instagram.^[33] She was nominated for Best International Act at the 2023 BET Awards.^[34] Uncle Waffles released the EP Solace (2023) as the follow-up to Asylum in what she called a double-sided project titled, "An Asylum of Solace".^[35][36][37] It was supported by the single "Echoes", featuring Tony Duardo, which was released on 4 August 2023.^[38]

Her single "Wadibusa" featuring OHP Sage, Pcee & Djy Bizana was released on 17 April 2024. It peaked at No. 4 on the Local Top 100 and No. 11 International Top 200 respectively.^[39]

Waffles will embark on her upcoming Less Talk, More Piano Tour, to commence from June 2, 2024, We Love Green, Paris until November 29, Asia.^[40]

As a headliner

• Less Talk, More Piano Tour (2024)
• We Love Waffles (2025)