adminThree-year-old South African toddler, DJ Arch Junior from Alexander became the youngest person ever to win SA’s Got Talent when the sixth season of reality talent show came to an end on Sunday.
The DJ, real name Oratilwe Hlongwane won a R500,000 grand prize after competing against six other hopefuls.
He was discovered by social media users when his family started posting videos of the toddler showing off his talent on a mixing deck in January.
Reacting to the win, his father Glen Hlongwane said he was proud of the little boy.
“We’re very proud as a family. He surprised us since day one, since January when he ‘broke the Internet’. Winning SA’s Got Talent is the cherry on top,” Hlongwane said.
He said while the young DJ would be allowed to play at child-friendly events, they have to focus on his education.
“The main factor was just for him to go there (SA’s Got Talent) and express his talent. Only when he’s mature enough to understand this will we try and plan things. For now it’s just education, we’ll just let him develop as a kid and make sure we’re not taking anything away from his childhood.”
Hlongwane, however, said he gets annoyed when people call him DJ Arch Junior’s manager saying he would not turn his child’s hobby into a job.
“Since the video went viral, people have been asking me where he’s going to perform next, and whether he’s been signed to a record label. But I don’t have plans for any of that. My child is not a business, he’s only three years old.
“I’m not his manager, I’m his father and right now, AJ (DJ Arch Junior) is just a child doing what he loves, not a working artiste.”
A few weeks ago, his son’s audition video which shows him mixing music on a DJ set like a professional went viral, garnering praises from international stars such as Britney Spears, T Pain and Ace Hood.
“This little guy gives me life,” Spears wrote on her Instagram with the video of DJ Arch Junior. Top producer, T Pain took to Facebook to share the video with the caption “Little guy has the gift.”
The young DJ lives with his parents, Hlongwane who is a gymnastics teacher and his mother who is a student at Boston Media. They live in Alexander, Johannesburg, where Arch Junior spends most of his time at creche.
The toddler got his love for music from his father who was always mixing music on a DJ app on his Ipad and on his home DJ set.
“When I spend time with AJ, he always wants to do what I’m doing. I started showing him and teaching him how to mix music, and before I knew it, he was doing it on his own and he became better than me,” Hlongwane says with a laugh.
On what he plans to do with the cash prize from SA’s Got Talent, Hlongwane said: “It’s all going to go towards his education and improving his life.” – Citizen/EWN/Showbiz Reporter.
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