By Lauren Lee
Under the lights at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Uncle Waffles was doing far more than standing behind the decks DJing. During her hourlong opening set for Nigerian superstar Asake, she moved through rigorous choreography alongside her dancers as fans rose from their seats and danced with her.
It was the kind of full-scale performance the Eswatini-born artist, whose real name is Lungelihle Zwane, said audiences now expect from her.
“I’m known as an artist now,” Waffles told CNN during a recent stop in Atlanta. “People really do expect me to put on a big show, something that you wouldn’t typically see from a DJ.”
Waffles is recognized for bringing the South African Amapiano musical sound to festivals and audiences worldwide.
That is a significant shift from where she was three years ago, when she told CNN she was determined to make sure her brand was “not just a DJ.” Since then, Waffles has taken Amapiano to major international stages, including Coachella in California and the Wireless Festival in London. In 2025, she became the first female artist to grace the cover of Rolling Stone Africa.
As the opportunities arrived, Waffles said she deliberately built a performance that could meet the moment.
In 2023, she told CNN she wanted to headline her own shows and “create an experience.”
“I’m hoping that I get to do bigger stages and actually show people that DJs are people who can dominate stages,” she said at the time. “They are people who can headline your festival and bring thousands of people.”
As the audiences which saw her performances grew from roughly 3,000 people at Avant Gardner’s Great Hall in New York in September 2023 to 21,000 at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena in August, the 26-year-old says she built a show that could match the scale.
“I got a lot of opportunities to do big festivals, and I really wanted to match the opportunities I was getting,” she said. “So, I really prioritized building my production, working on my visuals, working on choreography.”
“I really wanted to make it feel like you are coming to a show,” she added.
But becoming that kind of a performer has required Waffles to train, as the added workload was taking a physical toll.
“I started working out in 2024 because I definitely felt like I was taking a big decline because I was prioritizing doing as many shows as possible,” she said.
Now, she exercises regularly to maintain the stamina required to dance through her high-energy sets. Before taking the stage in Atlanta, Waffles said she had already run nearly 4 miles.
Getting people’s attention
Dance has been a key part of Waffles’ approach to performing from early on.
“Once I started doing bigger stages, I needed to be bigger. I needed to be more expressive,” she said. “Nobody was looking at me, but I was like, ‘I’m gonna make sure they do.’”
That approach has only grown. “Being extremely entertaining is very important,” she said. “People want to feel like, ‘Wow, I went, and I saw something that I wouldn’t be able to see again.’”
Her shows are energetic, carefully choreographed and nonstop.
“From the minute I press play to the very end, we’re sweating, dripping,” she said. “But I really want to give it my best so people really experience what we can do.”
But as Waffles has leaned further into choreography and spectacle, her evolution has not won over everyone. A video of her dancing during a July 2026 DJ set went viral in South Africa, drawing criticism from some social media users who questioned whether her increasingly elaborate moves had become more of a distraction than an enhancement to the music.
One X user commented, “Watch this on mute. Horrendous! She must stop dancing.”
Waffles has previously pushed back against the idea that performing diminishes her credibility behind the decks, telling Mixmag in 2024, “The weirdest thing is people invalidating that you’re playing just because you’re performing, because people don’t think those things can coexist.”
Winning over a bigger audience
Her latest chance to perform in front of large audiences was alongside Nigerian superstar Asake. Waffles joined the Afrobeats star on his In God We Trust tour, which introduced her to fans who might know African music, but not her.
“I opened for Asake because I definitely think it’s a great opportunity to open up our audience,” she said. “He’s got such a great African audience, you know, a diaspora audience.”
For Waffles, winning over new crowds means giving them something unique they can’t find anywhere else. But now, she has has bigger ambitions that go beyond her own career.
She wants Amapiano to receive greater recognition from the global music industry, including picking up some cherished accolades.
“We’re hoping that in the next few years new doors open up, like having our own category at the Grammys, being considered for music video awards, all these things,” she said.
“The more we grow, the more we keep showing that we can actually do this.”
Source: edition.cnn.com