Yanga Sobetwa, the winner of Idols SA season 14, recently opened up about her mental health.
While sharing that she was celebrating her 22nd birthday in an Instagram post, the singer also mentioned the mental anguish she experienced.
“It’s my 22nd birthday!????. It’s my “YOUNG ADULT ERA” sana. Man, looking where I came from I was not supposed to make it. The suicidal attempts, the severe depression and anxiety, the trauma! Hay truly it’s only by God grace shame !?.”
She also added that she has a live recording on 1 July 2023. “…So my wish is [for] y’all to buy your tickets and help me live my purpose ♥️. ”
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Many fans took to her comments section to wish her well. One person said, “This. Being real about your story like this is why you’ll always have people cheering you on and supporting you. Happy belayed birthday sisi❤️ I hope you had a peaceful day to reflect on God’s peace that has kept you centred and grounded amidst all the troubles this world brings.”
Another commented, “Keep pushing…Always know that God has a purpose for your life…anything negative dont entertain…focus on Gods plan…happy birthday ?❤.”
Yanga also made an appearance on the podcast Nkululeko n Cultr, speaking to host Nkululeko Nkweu.
Nkululeko spoke about record labels having an idea of who they want their artists to become, not considering who the artist themselves want to be. “If you want to record Afropop, they already have a pop record in mind.”
Yanga responded, “We would have meetings and I would show [the record label] the music that I had been writing.” She noted that she would then be connected with a producer whose genre does not quite fit hers. “What am I supposed to write with this?” she asked.
She also mentioned that she would not encourage individuals to be signed as a young artist. “The reason I would say, we don’t really get megastars’ competitions like that is because of the contracts they get signed into, because record labels they partner with already have artists and sometimes it happens that they’ll shelve artists because of the sake of the agreement.”
She added, “They’ll make you release one song and not push it that much. They’ll do the bare minimum that they have to do to honour the contract.”
