Cape Town-based Internet Athi has been announced as the latest artist to be featured in its Up Next artist development program in South Africa.
“Music has always been my way of holding people close, even from a distance,” Internet Athi tells Apple Music. “To be recognised as Apple Music’s Up Next South Africa artist feels bigger than me. It feels like a reminder that honest stories, sung from home, can still travel far.”
Blending jazz, neo-soul, folk and R&B, Internet Athi has steadily emerged as one of the country’s most compelling new voices through emotionally rich songwriting and deeply intimate storytelling. Rooted in live musicianship and vulnerability, his music explores love, longing, grief and connection with a warmth and sincerity that has resonated strongly with audiences across South Africa.
He first gained national attention with breakout singles “Wena,” “Nguwe” and “Undithembisile,” a trio of releases that introduced listeners to a sound defined by emotional honesty and understated elegance. Through organic growth and multiple flagship playlist placements, these tracks have amassed more than 1 million all-time plays on Apple Music, a milestone feat for an artist so early in his career.
On 27 April 2026, Internet Athi released his debut album Polymorphism, a defining moment in his artistic journey. Inspired by the idea that one entity can exist in many forms, the album explores love as a shifting and multifaceted force through romance, friendship, family, grief and community. Guided by classical notions of Agape, Eros, Storge and Philia, the project reframes love as fluid rather than fixed, balancing intimacy and distance, beauty and tension.
Recorded and mixed at Concept Records and mastered by Sonic Nursery, Polymorphismcombines delicate songwriting with expansive arrangements shaped by a close-knit circle of collaborators. The project’s release was quickly followed by Internet Athi’s inclusion in the 2026 Standard Bank Joy of Jazz programme, signalling growing recognition around his work and live performances. Between late 2025 and early 2026, he built momentum through a series of sold-out shows, which has since carried into an independently organised national tour spanning multiple cities across South Africa.
Beyond music, Internet Athi is also a published writer under his given name, Athenkosi Cetyana, with work featured at the Franschhoek Literary Festival and in Cover2Cover publications. This multidisciplinary approach to storytelling continues to shape his artistic voice, positioning him among a new generation of South African artists redefining jazz and soul through community, collaboration and emotional truth.
“To my supporters, thank you for every single play,” he adds. “Thank you for sitting with my music and for sharing it with your loved ones. Thank you for carrying these songs with such care and warmth. Ndiyanithanda kakhulu. This moment belongs to all of us.”
As the latest Up Next act to be spotlighted in South Africa, Internet Athi will be featured across Apple Music’s Up Next playlist https://apple.co/3eITdJd. The curated Up Next playlist features a dynamic class of new and emerging artists, thoughtfully hand-picked by Apple Music editors from around the world. The playlist is genre-agnostic and represents a line-up of artists our global editors are passionate about and eager to expose to a larger audience.
