{"id":2313566,"date":"2026-03-05T08:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T08:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2313566"},"modified":"2026-03-05T08:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T08:28:16","slug":"apple-music-names-umzulu-phaqa-as-latest-up-next-artist-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/apple-music-names-umzulu-phaqa-as-latest-up-next-artist-in-sa\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Music names Umzulu Phaqa as latest Up Next artist in SA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The programme, run by Apple Music, highlights emerging artists from around the world and promotes them through curated playlists and editorial support on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing featured on Apple Music\u2019s Up Next is incredibly exciting because it opens the door for the world to experience my sound,\u201d Umzulu Phaqa said. \u201cMy music is a fusion of traditional Zulu elements and contemporary sounds, rooted in heritage but always evolving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal is to be a global superstar while staying grounded in my culture, and this moment feels like a powerful step towards that vision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As part of the Up Next programme, Umzulu Phaqa will be featured on the Up Next playlist on Apple Music, which showcases emerging artists selected by the platform\u2019s editorial teams globally.<\/p>\n<p>Previous artists highlighted through the programme include Billie Eilish, Khalid, Burna Boy, Tems and Megan Thee Stallion.<\/p>\n<p>Born Sphiwe Moya in rural KwaZulu-Natal, Umzulu Phaqa is known for blending Afro-soul, Afropop, house and hip-hop with lyrical narratives rooted in isiZulu culture. She gained wider attention in 2025 with the release of the single \u2018Mam\u2019gobhozi\u2019, which circulated widely online after being released in an unmastered format intended to preserve the message of the song.<\/p>\n<p>Later in 2025, she collaborated with MsFit on a joint project titled <em>And The Grammy Goes To!<\/em>. The 16-minute release features tracks such as \u2018GRAMMY\u2019, \u2018PUT IT DOWN\u2019 and \u2018AMAHIGH VALUE WAT WAT\u2019.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Grammy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mcySF76K-Z8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicinafrica.net \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The programme, run by Apple Music, highlights emerging artists from around the world and promotes them through curated playlists and editorial support on the platform. \u201cBeing featured on Apple Music\u2019s Up Next is incredibly exciting because it opens the door for the world to experience my sound,\u201d Umzulu Phaqa said. \u201cMy music is a fusion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2313567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2313566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Apple-Music-names-Umzulu-Phaqa-as-latest-Up-Next-artist.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2313566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2313568,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313566\/revisions\/2313568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2313566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2313566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2313566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}