Ten emerging South African artists will be pushed through music, mentorship, styling and visual identity before three earn professionally produced music videos. Behind the competition is a sharper idea about the modern artist: talent may get you noticed, but increasingly, knowing what you look like, what you represent and how you translate on screen is part of the job.
South Africa does not have a shortage of emerging musicians. The more difficult gap appears after talent is discovered: access to management thinking, styling, visual production, media platforms, career strategy and the infrastructure capable of turning songs into recognisable artists. Under The Radar matters because its development model explicitly brings several of those disciplines together, treating image and visual storytelling as part of artist development rather than decoration added after the music is finished.
There is a revealing detail at the centre of Channel O’s new Under The Radar partnership with Studio 88 Mix On The Move.
The next South African star may already have the song. The harder work is building enough of a world around it for audiences to remember whose song it was.
Ten artists enter the programme. Only three ultimately receive one of its biggest opportunities: a professionally produced music video.
Not a vague promise of “exposure”. Not simply another performance slot. A music video.
That choice says plenty about what it now means to try to break an artist.
A generation ago, the song could plausibly be treated as the centre of the machinery and everything else assembled around it. The contemporary emerging artist is being asked to arrive as something closer to an entire world: music, image, personality, styling, social presence, visual language and a recognisable identity all moving together.
Under The Radar, which begins on Channel O on Saturday, 19 September, is turning that reality into the premise of a talent-development series. According to the programme announcement, the selected musicians will be mentored, challenged and developed before three receive the chance to translate their music into professionally produced visual work.
The Artist Is Becoming the Whole Product
Studio 88 entering that process makes more sense when the partnership is viewed beyond sponsorship.
The retailer is not being positioned only as the company whose name appears beside the television show. Its role is specifically tied to the artists’ visual development: the relationship between sound, clothing, personal style and identity.
That is where Under The Radar becomes more culturally interesting than another elimination-format search for a good voice.
An artist can have an exceptional record and still struggle to communicate who they are once the camera turns on. The reverse is increasingly visible too: artists whose visual universes, personal styling and ability to understand digital culture turn individual songs into much larger cultural moments.
Studio 88 Senior Brand Manager Kaboomo Mgibi-Marshoff describes fashion as part of the way young creatives communicate identity, with the programme intended to help artists develop both their sound and the confidence and visual language that allow them to stand apart.
It is, naturally, a useful position for a fashion retailer to hold. But it also reflects the environment these contestants actually want to enter.
Music discovery now happens inside an intensely visual culture. An artist may first encounter an audience through a vertical video, a performance clip, a photograph, a fit, a meme, an interview excerpt or fifteen seconds of a song divorced from its album artwork and original context.
The challenge is no longer simply getting heard.
It is becoming recognisable.
Mix On The Move Has Been Moving Towards This
For Studio 88, the move onto Channel O is also an expansion of something it has been building for several years.
Mix On The Move has previously operated through music-focused competitions and collaborations. In 2024 and again in 2025, its Next Gen editions with Soul Candi combined competition with mentorship, studio access, music education, styling and opportunities for artists to have their work distributed or showcased. (Studio 88)
Studio 88 has been explicitly linking its brand to emerging musicians for even longer. In 2022, it described Mix On The Move alongside its other artist-development campaigns and framed fashion as part of how it supported new DJs and musicians. (Studio 88)
The Channel O partnership therefore feels less like an abrupt move into entertainment than the next version of an existing strategy.
What changes is the scale and, importantly, the medium.
Once the competition becomes television, contestants are no longer developing only for judges, recording studios or online voting. They are being developed in front of an audience.
And Under The Radar has assembled mentors whose disciplines make that broader definition of artistry unusually explicit.
Slikour, Zoë Modiga and a Team Built Around More Than Singing
The programme's mentor group includes artist manager and PR strategist Phindi Matroshe Mtshali; hip-hop artist, entrepreneur and SlikourOnLife founder Siya “Slikour” Metane; stylist and multidisciplinary creative Shawn Ntuli; and singer-songwriter Zoë Modiga.
Radio and digital presenter Luthando “Hey Shawty” Makwange will host, while filmmaker and cinematographer Ofentse Mwase serves as video director.
That combination is important.
A conventional singing competition might organise its authority largely around performers and vocal coaches. Under The Radar brings management, publicity, styling, media, filmmaking and established musicianship into the same room.
It implicitly acknowledges that a sustainable music career is constructed at the intersection of all of them.
Slikour can speak to an artist from the position of someone who has moved between recording, entrepreneurship and music media. Modiga brings the perspective of an artist whose work has developed a distinct musical and visual identity. A stylist approaches the question from another direction entirely: what does the audience understand about you before you have even sung?
And then there is Mwase.
His involvement becomes particularly significant when the programme narrows from ten contestants to three artists receiving professional videos. The final opportunity is not simply to tell somebody that they have star potential. It is to see whether that potential can be made visible.
Visibility Is the Actual Competition
There is an obvious corporate logic to all of this.
Studio 88 itself describes fashion and music as two of the pillars around which it builds its youth-culture marketing, alongside football and cars. (Studio 88) Channel O gets a talent format rooted in the South African music pipeline. Studio 88 gets to participate in the construction of artists whose audiences overlap with its own.
But the partnership works editorially because the commercial logic and the artists’ real-world challenge happen to meet in the same place.
Emerging South African musicians are not suffering from an absence of music.
There is an abundance of it.
The harder problem is differentiation.
When thousands of tracks can compete for the same listener, and when the next artist is always one swipe away, talent needs enough definition around it to become memorable. That does not mean reducing musicians to branding exercises. The danger of programmes like this is precisely that image can become a substitute for artistic depth.
The more useful possibility is the opposite: helping an artist make the outside of the project communicate what is already happening inside it.
That is the tension Under The Radar will ultimately have to navigate.
Can styling amplify identity rather than manufacture one? Can mentorship sharpen an artist without sanding away what made them unusual? Can television create visibility without turning emerging musicians into temporary characters who disappear as soon as the season ends?
Those questions matter far more than who simply looks most “screen-ready”.
From Under the Radar to Something Recognisable
Channel O’s Shirley Adonisi describes the partnership as an attempt to give emerging South African talent greater platform, visibility and support.
The word visibility may be the most important of the three.
South Africa does not lack artists capable of making extraordinary music. The bottleneck often comes later: access to teams, visual production, strategy, presentation and the infrastructure necessary to turn a promising artist into somebody audiences can continuously encounter.
Three music videos will not solve that problem.
Neither will one television programme.
But Under The Radar is built around a useful recognition of what the problem has become.
The next South African star may already have the song.
The harder work is giving audiences enough of a world around it to remember whose song it was.
Under The Radar Powered by Studio 88 Mix On The Move begins Saturday, 19 September 2026 on Channel O, DStv Channel 320, with new episodes scheduled for Saturdays.
Story index Key points, people & topics
Key points & topics
- Ten emerging South African artists will move through music, mentorship, styling and visual identity before three earn professionally produced music videos. Behind the competition is a sharper idea about the modern artist:...
- Channel O and Studio 88 Mix On The Move are putting ten emerging South African artists through a development process spanning music, mentorship, styling and visual identity. The bigger idea behind Under The Radar is that...
Frequently asked Answers from the desk
What is Under The Radar Powered by Studio 88 Mix On The Move?
It is a Channel O artist-development programme created in partnership with Studio 88 Mix On The Move around emerging South African musicians.
When does Under The Radar start?
The supplied programme announcement gives Saturday 19 September 2026 as the premiere date.
Where can I watch Under The Radar?
It airs on Channel O which is DStv Channel 320 in South Africa.
What time does Under The Radar air?
The supplied 2026 programme announcement reviewed by Viranova confirms the premiere date but does not give a definitive broadcast time. Viewers should use the current Channel O schedule for the exact slot.
How many artists are on Under The Radar?
The programme announcement says ten emerging South African artists will participate.
What do the artists do on Under The Radar?
The programme combines music development mentorship challenges styling visual-identity work and television exposure.
What do the winners receive?
Three artists will receive professionally produced music videos as one of the programme's major development opportunities.
Who are the Under The Radar mentors?
The announced mentor group includes Phindile Matroshe Mtshali Siya Slikour Metane Shawn Ntuli and Zoë Modiga.
Who hosts Under The Radar?
Luthando Hey Shawty Makwange is the announced host.
Who directs the music videos?
Filmmaker and cinematographer Ofentse Mwase is announced as video director.
How we reported this Sources, verification & accountability
- Reporting type
- Feature
- Verification
- Official source
- Reporter / responsible desk
- Viranova Music Desk
- Primary evidence
- Based primarily on the Studio 88 Mix On The Move and Channel O Under The Radar media release supplied to Viranova, including the ten-artist development structure, mentor lineup, three professional music-video opportunities and 19 September 2026 premiere. The current partnership was cross-checked against Channel O’s public promotion of Under The Radar Powered by Studio 88 Mix On The Move. Channel O’s existing DStv archive also establishes Under The Radar as a pre-existing discovery format centred on up-and-coming artists and music videos, meaning the 2026 Studio 88 partnership is more accurately understood as a new iteration and expanded development model rather than the first use of the Under The Radar title. Studio 88’s previous Mix On The Move activity was independently verified through its 2024 and 2025 Soul Candi partnerships. The 2025 edition offered mentorship, accredited music education, studio time, styling and photography, a collaboration opportunity and record release support, establishing a clear artist-development trajectory before the Channel O partnership.
- Additional verification
- Studio 88 has used Mix On The Move as an emerging-music platform across multiple years. Its 2024 Next Gen partnership with Soul Candi combined a competition structure with production learning, industry exposure and mentorship. The 2025 edition expanded that model substantially. Studio 88’s official competition material offered the winner accredited Soul Candi Institute of Music training, expert mentorship, studio time with Ryan Murgatroyd, professional photography and styling, an artist collaboration, a Soul Candi Records release and Studio 88 media exposure alongside cash and clothing prizes. Studio 88 publicly identifies music and fashion among four central youth-culture pillars in its wider brand strategy and has linked its music-development initiatives with artist styling since at least 2022. Channel O has previously operated Under The Radar as an emerging-artist music-video discovery format. Its DStv archive describes the show as a platform for up-and-coming artists to place fresh music videos before wider audiences. DStv currently lists Channel O HD as Channel 320 and describes it as a destination for African music, music videos, artists and entertainment. The announced mentor disciplines are consistent with the participants’ established work. Siya Metane is founder and CEO of SlikourOnLife; Zoë Modiga is an independent singer-songwriter whose official biography foregrounds music, fashion and visual individuality; and OM Films identifies Ofentse Mwase as a music-video director and qualified cinematographer.
- Image
- Supplied by Authentic Brand Comms
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Filed by Viranova Music Desk for the Music desk. Published 15 Sept 2026.
Sources
Primary material
Viranova obtained, attended or witnessed this directly.
- Under The Radar Powered by Studio 88 Mix On The Move will develop ten emerging South African artists through music mentorship challenges styling and visual identity Studio 88 Mix On The Move × Channel O media release supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 15 September 2026
- Three artists from the Under The Radar programme will receive professionally produced music videos Studio 88 Mix On The Move × Channel O media release supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 15 September 2026
- Under The Radar Powered by Studio 88 Mix On The Move begins on Channel O on Saturday 19 September 2026 Studio 88 Mix On The Move × Channel O media release supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 15 September 2026
- The announced mentor group includes Phindile Matroshe Mtshali Siya Slikour Metane Shawn Ntuli and Zoë Modiga Studio 88 Mix On The Move × Channel O media release supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 15 September 2026
- Luthando Hey Shawty Makwange is announced as host and Ofentse Mwase as video director Studio 88 Mix On The Move × Channel O media release supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 15 September 2026
- Studio 88's role in the programme includes supporting the artists' styling visual identity and relationship between fashion and creative self-expression Studio 88 Mix On The Move × Channel O media release supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 15 September 2026
- Channel O describes the partnership as giving emerging South African artists platform visibility and support Studio 88 Mix On The Move × Channel O media release supplied to Viranova · Verified Viranova original information accessed 15 September 2026
- Channel O currently promotes Under The Radar Powered by Studio 88 Mix On The Move through its official social media and identifies Zoë Modiga Siya Metane and Phindile Matroshe among the mentors Channel O accessed 15 September 2026
- Channel O HD is carried on DStv Channel 320 as an African music channel featuring music videos artists and entertainment DStv accessed 15 September 2026
- Channel O's earlier Under The Radar format spotlighted up-and-coming artists and fresh music videos for wider audiences Channel O / DStv accessed 15 September 2026
- Studio 88 and Soul Candi's 2024 Mix On The Move Next Gen programme offered emerging talent industry exposure production learning and mentorship Studio 88 accessed 15 September 2026
- The 2025 Mix On The Move Next Gen winner package included accredited music education expert mentorship studio time professional styling and photography an artist collaboration and a Soul Candi Records release Studio 88 accessed 15 September 2026
- Studio 88 identifies Fashion Music Soccer and Cars as four central pillars of its youth-culture strategy Studio 88 accessed 15 September 2026
- Studio 88 has publicly connected styling and fashion support with its emerging DJ artist and musician initiatives since at least 2022 Studio 88 accessed 15 September 2026
- Zoë Modiga describes her creative work through music African storytelling fashion and visual imagery and operates as an independent recording artist Zoë Modiga accessed 15 September 2026
- Ofentse Mwase is a music-video director qualified cinematographer and director of photography at OM Films OM Films accessed 15 September 2026
- Phindile Matroshe founded At Handle as a business spanning PR publicity digital media events marketing artist management and commercialisation At Handle accessed 15 September 2026
- Y's digital programming has included Tell Us Y hosted by Hey Shawty as part of the station's expansion beyond conventional radio Y accessed 15 September 2026
Secondary material
Reported first by another publication or organisation, and credited here.
- Siya Metane is founder and CEO of SlikourOnLife and has worked across music television marketing media and creator-focused entertainment Interactive Advertising Bureau South Africa accessed 15 September 2026
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