Former “Idols SA” season 14 winner Yanga Sobetwa opened up about her mental health challenges on her birthday.
The 22-year-old gospel musician shared her feelings in an Instagram post 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 or 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”, Sobetwa told the 70.5K subscribers that her “Idols SA” journey was met with the record label ”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.
“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.”
Sobetwa also spoke of growing up in Delft, Cape Town.
“Growing up in Delft was a cool experience. I grew up in Leiden, where it was a half coloured, half Xhosa people.”
Sobetwa clinched the “Idols SA” title in 2018 while she was still in Grade 11 at Rhodes High School in Cape Town.
She grew up in Delft but moved five times during her childhood and, after winning “Idols”, she bought her family a home in Mitchells Plain in 2020.
Her family moved back to Delft.
The star recently shared news of moving into a new place in April this year.
Following her “Promise Land” album, Sobetwa is gearing up to record her first gospel project off her “New Era” album and is recording the performance live in Johannesburg on July 1.