[WATCH] ‘Life after Idols was tough’: Yanga reflects on suicide attempts and depression
|Published
HARD JOURNEY: Yanga Sobetwa vannie Delft
Former Idols winner Yanga Sobetwa has opened up about her mental state after winning, saying: “I was not supposed to make it.”
Yanga became the youngest winner of the reality show in 2018 while still in Grade 11 at Rhodes High in Cape Town.
The now 22-year-old gospel singer also slammed the record label she was signed to after winning Idols, claiming they did not do enough to boost her and possibly smothering her fledgling career in the cut-throat music industry.
The musician shared her feelings on Instagram where she wrote: “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!”
The post continues with her promoting an upcoming show: “Y’all know I have a recording on the 1 July 2023 so my wish is for y’all to buy your tickets and help me live my purpose. Link is on my bio.”
In a recent podcast interview with Nkululeko n Cultr, Yanga told the 70.5k subscribers that her post-Idols SA journey appeared doomed from the start as the record label that Idols signed her up with was allegedly “doing the bare minimum”.
“The record label would do the bare minimum they have to do for the competition as they have their artist they already focus on,” she told IOL.
“Sometimes they shelf artist on top of artist just for the sake of their agreement with the competition.
“We would have meetings and I show them the songs I’m writing and then I see they already have a pre-planned idea of who they want me to be, they’ve packaged me already.”
Yanga grew up in Delft and moved five times during her childhood and then after winning Idols, she bought her family a home in Mitchells Plain in 2020.
Her family has since moved back to Delft.
“Growing up in Delft was a cool experience, I grew up in Leiden, where it was a half-coloured, half-Xhosa black people.”
Following her Promised Land album, Yanga is now gearing up to record her first gospel project off her New Era album and is recording the performance live on July 1 in Johannesburg.