Angie oeh, whose real name is Angelique Greeff, was 24 years old when she lost her battle with cancer on Saturday night.
Her music career was brief, but her rise to fame was meteoric after making her first appearance on the online music scene in 2019, when she started writing, producing and releasing music independently.
Her breakthrough came in December 2021, when her first viral single, “Dis jou wyfie”, made people sit up and take notice. The EPs “Sex in Afrikaans” and “Mooiste Meisies” were both released during 2022.
Angie teamed up with manager Wynand Myburgh — famous for working with Afrikaans music luminaries such as Jack Parow and Fokofpolisiekar — early last year. Of the dozen songs released since, the biggest hit is arguably “Sex in Afrikaans”.
Parow was also instrumental in what is deemed Angie’s most popular collaboration, when they teamed up for”Meisies en Partytjies”. Van Pletzen, Biggy and Loufi were among other rappers and bands she successfully collaborated with.
Musicians and fans across SA expressed shock and sadness at the budding young artist’s sudden passing. But it was not her first bout with cancer; a malignant tumour was removed from her back in 2022.
In an interview with News24 last year, she said she got into music when the cancer in her back was discovered. “The first EP really helped me through that because I wasn’t thinking about being sick. I was thinking about making music.”
Her death on Saturday night, after having been diagnosed on 15 August, left the industry reeling. In a moving show of support, the BackaBuddy campaign to help her family with medical expenses had already gained R278,000 in donations at the time of writing.
Angie oeh used her music as a platform to advocate for change and create awareness of issues close to her heart.
“As an openly gay woman, she wanted to promote women’s rights and also highlight how society discriminates against women, class and race,” Myburgh told Pretoria Rekord.
“She was fearless in this mission and faced a lot of opposition for it, but that did not, and never would, stop her.”