South African producer and DJ Vanco has built an international career on dance floors from Johannesburg to Amsterdam, but his path was originally set for the corporate world. His collaboration with Gulf Arab singer AYA on “Ma Tnsani (Yalla Habibi)” became a global club hit, earning a remix by Tiësto and tens of millions of streams.
Early Steps and a Chart-Topping Debut
Vanco started as a dancer, became a DJ, and then a beatmaker, gathering ideas and rhythm combinations that would later shape his sound. The first track he ever released, “Regeneration,” was chosen by fellow producer Cuebur, who became a pivotal mentor.
“Cuebur played a big role in my career. He’s the first guy who showed me so much technical stuff. Even him wanting to collaborate with me while I was still unknown. He chose the first record that I dropped in my career, and it went number one on Traxsource for a month. I didn’t know what that meant; I was at work, and my phone was buzzing,” Vanco recalled.
When Cuebur heard “Regeneration,” he insisted Vanco mix the song himself, even though Vanco had no mixing experience. “He taught me, basically. It’s still on Traxsource right now. I never looked back. I’m still in touch with him; he’s my brother.”
Jazz Roots and Breakthrough Collaborations
Vanco’s connection to jazz runs deep. “I love jazz, in general. I’m friends with a lot of jazz players. I’ve made songs with Nduduzo Makhathini; he’s a grootman (elder), a good uncle to me. There’s also Luyanda Madope, I’ve been in sessions with him. For some reason, I’ve always been intrigued by jazz music, because my granddad used to say to me, ‘all these things that people are doing stem from jazz and the blues,'” he said.
One of his biggest songs, “Lutho,” features jazz artist Njabulo Seh on vocals. The two used to play basketball together and decided to hit the studio one day. “That was another break for me. I had a moment internationally because Black Coffee played the remix by DJEFF, and DJs were playing the original in the hood, on the radio. I shot a video, it was charting on MTV Base and Channel O. I had a moment,” Vanco said.
Around the same time, “Ya Na Pula” went into regular rotation. It features Troy, a fireman by day, a businessman, and a deep lover of jazz and Afropop. “I’ve never wanted to work with someone who only does dance music. I’ve always felt like I need to dig deeper because dance is a combination of so many genres. Same story: got linked by a family friend, Ricardo. It came about a year later. I was having great moments for myself too,” he said.
Balancing Corporate Work and the Dance Floor
Before global acclaim, local gigs kept Vanco relevant. He had been consistently booked since taking music seriously around 2015. “Between late 2014 and 2018, I played at every kasi (hood) in Gauteng you can think of, and almost every corner of the country, almost all the places that matter. I played for free, I played for money,” he said.
At the time, he maintained a strict dual schedule: “From 5:30 AM to 6 PM, I’m a corporate guy. Then, Thursday until Sunday, I’m out. Sometimes we come back early hours of Monday morning. I never drank, I never smoked, I never did any drugs. I was always on the water and the juice game.” He would be on site a couple of hours later, surviving on coffee, Red Bull, and the energy from the night before.
His two worlds occasionally intersected. He was commissioned to design the space for the first Deep In The City, a dance music event in Johannesburg. “That was my first tender, to transform it from a school into a restaurant vibe. That was my ticket to freedom in terms of time, and just upping the bag in real estate. I got a chance to play there two times, too. No one really knew,” he said, careful not to disclose his DJ life while building a corporate career.
International Recognition and a New Direction
Vanco took a break from work to attend the Amsterdam Dance Event. By then, he had been releasing music on respected dance labels such as Get Physical, Foliage Records, and Afrocentric Records. “I was very adamant that I wasn’t gonna release with a label that I didn’t feel had credibility. In Amsterdam, I was playing for free, and people embraced me so well. I felt that home was good, but there’s a life that I’d always dreamt about, of traveling,” he said.
He recalled a recently surfaced video of Black Coffee discussing his own dreams of playing worldwide. “I used to be crazier than that, not to compare or anything. That Amsterdam trip was the answer for me.” The same year, he secured bookings in Dubai and Angola, making it increasingly difficult to balance his other responsibilities.
He also reconnected with his now-ex-fiancée that year and began actively planning a different direction. “She came at a point where I was like, I wanna plan my life, I wanna move into this music thing, be done with work. I wanna get married. I knew it was crazy,” he said.
