While the electronic music industry is still largely dominated by men, it's no secret that artists like Charlotte de Witte, Nina Kraviz, Amelie Lens, Peggy Gou and Nora En Pure know how to control a crowd.
Locally, South Africa has seen a recent surge of new women artists performing at clubs and festivals across the country, and more of them have broken through since the pandemic. Ahead of the outdoor festival season, here are 47 women to look out for. If you want to hear them live in Cape Town, our guide to the best clubs in Cape Town shows you where to go.
Each entry shows where the DJ is based, the genres she plays and the career highlights we could find. Many of the details come from the artists' own profiles, so some may have changed since we last checked.
47 women DJs to watch
Abby NuRock
Johannesburg · Eclectic house and technoAbby NuRock's career began in 2002 on two second-hand Technics SL-1210 turntables, which she still plays today. She is known for vinyl-only sets, a huge record collection built over two decades of digging, and versatile, crowd-pleasing mixes. She is one of 947's resident DJs, has been a resident of the Dursoul label since 2015, and has a regular slot on 5FM.
In July 2022 she headlined a vinyl-only set at Mixmag and Budweiser's The Lab Johannesburg, alongside Roz and Avi Subban.
Anthea Scholtz
Cape Town · TechnoA multi-layered and passionate techno fanatic and all-round music lover, Anthea Scholtz has worked her way through South Africa's electronic music scene for more than fifteen years.
Recent highlights include a 2025 mix for 5FM and a set at Mødular in Cape Town in November 2024.
Coyote
Cape Town · Indie danceCoyote is a duo of Savanna Goldring and Talia Zaken, who play a range of indie dance music with psychedelic undertones. Both members also have their own entries below.
DBN Gogo
Pretoria · AmapianoMandisa Radebe, known as DBN Gogo, was born in 1993 and grew up in Pretoria. She studied law at the University of Pretoria before moving into music. She is a DJ, producer and musician, and her breakthrough came in 2020 through Channel O's Lockdown House Party. DBN stands for Durban, and gogo is slang for grandmother.
Her debut single “Khuza Gogo” went platinum, and in 2021 she became the first South African artist to join Spotify's global EQUAL Music Program. She launched her label, Zikode Records, with Universal Music in 2022 and released her debut album, What's Real, that November, followed by Click Bait in 2024. She was also booked for Coachella.
Desiree
Johannesburg · Techno and houseJohannesburg-born DJ and producer Desiree has risen quickly as one of the most promising house DJs in Jozi. Her synth-laden techno and house evokes an Afrocentric mood while staying loyal to techno basics.
She made her debut at Mixmag and Budweiser's The Lab Johannesburg in June 2022, has recorded guest mixes for BBC Radio 1's Soundsystem, the Keinemusik Radio Show and Groove Podcast, and has shared stages with Hone Dijon, Black Coffee and Mano Le Tough. She has also been on her first European tour.
Dre'ama
Johannesburg · Psychedelic trance and technoBased in Johannesburg, Dre'ama has been behind the decks for more than a decade, playing everything from psychedelic trance to techno. She also performs under her techno alias, Tank Girl.
Ethereal
Cape Town · Progressive psytranceA newly formed progressive psytrance project based in Cape Town.
Fairly Odd
Cape Town · Upbeat electronicFormed in early 2022 through a shared love of music, the Cape Town duo Fairly Odd have quietly been cementing themselves on line-ups across the Mother City with their upbeat music.
Flower Power
Wilderness, Garden Route · Full-on psytranceLili-Rose Elsom, aka Flower Power, represents the Garden Route psychedelic trance scene and has played full-on psytrance at around 140 to 148 BPM since 2016. She also performs as Forest Fairy, with a foresty sound at 148 to 160 BPM, and plays techno and house as DJ Lili Rose.
More recently, she has started organising events in the area too.
Hanél
South Africa · Electronic musicH.A.N.E.L is no stranger to the local electronic music scene, wearing many hats as a festival owner, booking agent, line-up curator, producer and DJ.
HegChick
Garden Route and Johannesburg · Psychedelic tranceWendy Koorts, aka HegChick, has been blasting psychedelic trance for more than a decade, and says she began mixing in the early 2000s. Her sets range from downtempo to full-power night-time psytrance.
She ran Red Eye Productions in Johannesburg for years, co-ran Amoeba Records from 2004 to 2008, and is half of the duo Bendy, signed to Soundblasting Records in New Caledonia. She also reports a signing to Pixan Recordings in Rome.
Housewife
Cape Town · House and discoFormed in 2021, Housewife is based in Cape Town and plays house and disco.
Illing
Johannesburg · ElectronicIlling started DJing in 2015 and is currently a resident DJ at Toy Toy in Johannesburg.
Jay Me
Cape Town · Disco and houseFounded in 2016, Jay Me is a disco and house DJ from Cape Town. Over the years, she has played some of the most iconic festivals in the country.
Kay Faith
Cape Town · Hip-hop productionKarien Barnard, known as Kay Faith, is an award-winning engineer turned record producer. She has recorded, mixed and mastered for some of the biggest hip-hop artists in the country, including YoungstaCPT, Kwesta, Uno July, Da L.E.S and Maglera Doe Boy.
Her 2017 EP In Good Faith was named Apple Music's New Artist Spotlight in January 2018, making her the first woman producer to achieve that, and her debut album, Antithesis, features Maglera Doe Boy on “Township Deluxe”.
Kim Rupping
Cape Town · Techno, minimal tech and dark minimalOriginally from Johannesburg and now in Cape Town, Kim Rupping has roots in the underground going back to 2007. She plays a range of minimal tech and dark minimal, as well as expressive, banging techno, for the early hours of the morning.
She has played Cape Town's District, including a first-ever back-to-back set with NYX.
Lady Lea
Johannesburg · Soulful, deep, funky and techno housePassionate about making music, Lady Lea (Lea Moscou Barrett) has been in the music and DJ industry for 26 years. She was one of the original Divas on Decks, a group of three female DJs.
As the only member still DJing full time, she revived the brand in 2009 as the Divas on Decks agency, which promotes and books female DJs.
Lady M
South Africa · Techno and deep houseFormed over a decade ago, Lady M is a DJ, producer and label owner. Playing a range of techno and deep house, she has released on several international labels, including Katermukke (Germany).
Lunch Money
Johannesburg · PsychedelicLunch Money started her journey in 2019. She is based in Johannesburg and plays a range of psychedelic music, perfect for the dance floor.
Meek
South Africa · Indie dance, dark disco and retro houseInspired by the divine feminine within the indie dance, dark disco and retro house genres, Meek's sound is defined by distinct raving grooves, light-hearted melodies, memorable vocals and deep basslines.
Mia
South Africa · Deep, tech and commercial houseMia started her career at the age of 18 and has played at many festivals and clubs around the country. Her style is deep, tech and commercial house music.
Mila Rose
Cape Town · House, funk, disco and afro-techMila Rose hails from the Mother City and brings a sweet selection of tunes. Confined to no boxes, she likes exploring the melodies of house, funk, disco and afro-tech.
Minx
Cape Town · Deep house, tech house and minimalCara-Mi, who performs as Minx, started DJing around 2012 at a beach bar, where she honed her skills in reading the crowd and broadened her range across mainstream styles such as deep house, tech house and minimal. She trained at the Soul Candi Institute of Music in Cape Town.
Misfidi
South Africa · ElectronicA bioengineer and scientist by day, and a creature and DJ by night, known as MisfiDi.
Mother Tongue
Pretoria · Dirty technoBased in Pretoria, Mother Tongue plays dirty techno music, perfect for the dance floor.
Myzo
PsytranceOriginally from Portugal, Myzo has been a regular feature at psytrance festivals for the last decade. She also performs under the alias TigerLili.
Nataša
South Africa · Electronica, techno and houseNataša is a newer, eclectic artist who mixes electronica, techno and house, and is known for Afro-influenced selections.
Paka
South Africa · Acid and psychedelicPaka is a newly formed duo of two friends who play a range of acid and psychedelic-inspired music.
Peyote
South Africa · Psychedelic tranceCurrently signed to PsynOpticz Records, DJ Peyote plays fantastic psychedelic trance perfect for the dance floor.
PsynOpticz started as a Cape Town event promoter in 2006 and went on to launch the Jungala Festival and its own record label.
Ri Mix
Cape Town · TechnoA fashion designer by day, Irene Soares has quietly been building her craft as a DJ under the alias Ri Mix, playing at some of the best techno nights around Cape Town.
Roz
Johannesburg · House and technoBased in Johannesburg, Roz knows how to get a crowd moving with her selection of house and techno, including when she plays in Cape Town.
She joined Abby NuRock and Avi Subban on the line-up for Mixmag and Budweiser's The Lab Johannesburg in July 2022.
Rusty
Johannesburg · TechnoStarting her career in 2019, Rusty is a Johannesburg-based DJ who plays everything dirty, dark and delicious in the techno realm.
Saai
Cape Town · Psytrance and technoRenowned on the psytrance scene, Saai has played the main stages at Origin Festival, Earth Dance and Vortex, and has a strong following on the Garden Route. She began playing techno a few years ago, which has drawn new audiences.
Sara Love
South Africa · PsychedelicOne half of the Sacred Sun duo, Sara brings vibrant, much-needed feminine energy to the dance floor.
Satori
Garden Route and Cape Town · Psychedelic tranceSatori started performing psychedelic trance way back in 2006, and still features regularly on festival line-ups across the Garden Route and Cape Town every season.
Savanna Goldring
Cape Town · Electronic and indie danceA DJ based in Cape Town, Savanna Goldring has been making her mark on the electronic music and rave scene since 2016. She is one half of the duo Coyote.
ScamAntrix
Cape Town · Psychedelic, psy-gression and progressive trancePerforming for more than a decade, ScamAntrix delivers some of the best psychedelic sets, from psychedelic trance to progressive trance. She also plays minimal techno with tribal elements as Toni L8lee.
She has played most of South Africa's main trance festivals, as well as the Tree of Life Festival in Turkey in 2015.
StaShe
Cape Town · Afro house and progressive melodic technoFresh on the scene, StaShe is a Cape Town local who has commanded the ears of those who resonate with the melodies of Afro house and the driving bass of progressive melodic techno. Mixmag has described her bassy, acid grooves.
Stay-C
Johannesburg · Drum and bassStay-C is René King, a classically trained pianist and guitarist who began making beats at 12. She has been producing drum and bass since around 2015 and flying the flag for the genre in South Africa since 2017, performing solid sets and producing her own music.
She won the Hospital Records Women in DnB mentorship in 2020 and has since released on the label and on UKF's Future Symptoms series. She founded the drum and bass events company Onyx in 2019, and has played Noisily Festival, Hospitality in the Harbour, Dot Festival in Melbourne and Fabric.
Stephy Longueira
Cape Town · Deep, funky and tech houseStephy learnt the art of mixing at the end of 2020 and has since secured a number of bookings at festivals and clubs around Cape Town, playing a range of deep house, funky house, tech house and more.
Talia Zaken
South Africa · Indie danceWith a desire to perform, Talia Zaken has quickly risen through the scene, playing all over the country, including an appearance over the border in Namibia. She is one half of the duo Coyote, and she also runs Senses Festival in Cape Town.
Tanya Vee
Cape Town · House, with vocalsTanya Vee is a South African artist with over a decade of experience as a performer, songwriter, singer and professional DJ. She started on piano at five and began writing songs around 2012. A Cape Town producer, Grimehouse, then asked her to sing on a track that was released as “Me & The Music”.
She also wrote the theme song for a documentary about street life, and moved into DJing in 2017 after completing Pioneer DJ training.
Tune Raider
Cape Town · Psychedelic tranceTune Raider is Pamm Legg, one of South Africa's top female psytrance DJs. She has been rocking dance floors for around two decades and plays some of the best psychedelic trance sets, day or night. She is affiliated with United Beats Records, one of the labels in our guide to psytrance labels.
She has played South Africa's top events, including Alien Safari, Rezonance, Vortex and Earth Dance, and has toured to Universo Paralello in Brazil and Hadra Festival in France. She produced the documentary Under the African Sky (2009) about the local psytrance scene, which is also in our list of influential South African psytrance albums, and appears on the compilation Divas on Decks Volume 2.
Uncle Waffles
Johannesburg · AmapianoBorn Lungelihle Zwane in Eswatini on 30 March 2000, Uncle Waffles is a DJ, record producer, entertainer and TV presenter based in South Africa. She left an information technology degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal to focus on music, started DJing during the 2020 lockdowns, and went viral in October 2021 after a set at Zone 6 in Soweto.
Billboard calls her the “Princess of Amapiano”. She won Best Newcomer at the South African Music Awards in 2022, and in 2023 she became the first amapiano act to play Coachella.
Universal Space
Johannesburg · PsytranceA psytrance DJ from Johannesburg, Universal Space started her career in 2016 and has been delivering funky music on dance floors ever since.
Zinhle
Johannesburg · HouseDJ Zinhle (Ntombezinhle Jiyane) was born on 30 December 1982 in Dannhauser, KwaZulu-Natal, and started her career around 2004. She is a DJ, producer, media personality and businesswoman, and has been a guest judge on Idols South Africa.
Her hit “Umlilo” went triple platinum and earned SAMA nominations, and she is CEO of the alcohol brand Boulevard Nectar Rosè.
Zsa Zsa
Cape Town · Dark disco and progressive housePlaying everything from dark disco to progressive house, Zsa Zsa has become a prominent figure in the Cape Town nightlife scene.
