Uncle Waffles Marks Five Years With a List of Amapiano Firsts, From Coachella to Parklife

Five years after a 30-second dance clip changed her life, Uncle Waffles is counting firsts. Closing out another international season, the DJ and producer thanked her team and fans on Instagram on 5 October with a line that doubles as a career summary: “Thank you for ANOTHER beautiful season 5 years in! Who knew mixing my love for music and dancing would wrap me in so many 1st.”

The list behind that sentence is long. She was the first amapiano act to play Coachella and the first to play EDC. She is the first and only amapiano artist to headline Brooklyn Mirage, the first to headline London’s Roundhouse and the first to perform at Parklife in Manchester. She has also played Afro Nation five years in a row, another first for the genre.

From a fill-in slot to Coachella

Born Lungelihle Zwane in Eswatini and raised in South Africa, Uncle Waffles started DJing during the pandemic. While interning at a TV station in 2020, she found an old set of decks, learned on them and practised up to eight hours a day, she told Billboard in 2023. Her friends picked the stage name because, as she put it, “nobody’s going to expect it.”

The turning point came in October 2021, when another DJ dropped out of a 10:30 p.m. slot at Zone 6 Venue in Soweto and she stepped in. A short Instagram clip of her dancing behind the decks to Young Stunna’s “Adiwele” went viral, drew a co-sign from Drake and turned her into one of amapiano’s most recognisable faces almost overnight. Her debut single, “Tanzania,” followed in March 2022, then the EPs Red Dragon, Asylum (certified gold within a week) and Solace.

Coachella came in April 2023. Billboard, which has called her the “princess of amapiano,” previewed the set by noting she would be the first act from the genre on the festival’s bill. She performed despite technical problems during a 9 p.m. slot, and clips of the set trended in South Africa the next morning. “The sound deserves to be on stages this big,” she said at the time.

The DJ as performer

Part of what has carried Uncle Waffles onto rock, pop and EDM line-ups is that her sets are shows. “I tend to use my dance moves to translate the music,” she told Billboard, “so you’re going to see what the song says even if you don’t understand it.” Dancers, choreography and her own movement behind the decks give audiences who have never heard amapiano a way in.

Her thank-you post reflects how much of that is a team effort. She credited “my team, my agents, dancers, photographers, promoters and every person who continues to make this possible,” thanked Kaytranada and Mr Money (Asake) for sharing their stages with her, and closed with a message to fans: “To my supporters, I am bc of you.”

The headline shows matter too. Her Roundhouse night in May 2025 brought a whole bill with her, including Odeal on DJ duty, Moliy, Felo Le Tee and HAIVAI B. That is the version of success she described back in 2023, when she said she wanted to book and sell out more shows featuring women and amapiano acts. Five years in, she is the one opening doors, and the list of firsts is still growing.