Another attempt to get South Africa’s youngest DJ to break a Guinness world record has failed.
Five-year-old Oratile Hlongwane, known as DJ Arch Junior, didn’t even make it to the decks at Taboo nightclub on Friday night as there was no crowd to play to.
The young boy, who was accompanied by his father and talent manager to the Sandton venue, looked restless and tired as he had to wait until 11pm before he could attempt to break the current world record, which is held by Brandon Duke from Canada, who managed to play a set in a club.
In 2015, he made his first attempt to break Duke’s record but was unable to play for an hour. He was only three.
His father, Glen Hlongwane, said last year that his son could only play a 15-20 minute set as his concentration wouldn’t last.
Last year, another attempt was made at the McDonald’s U/14 Schools League national finals at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville, Tshwane, but that too failed as it didn’t meet the requirement of the young DJ playing at an actual club. He played for 65 minutes.
In a previous radio interview with Gareth Cliff, Hlongwane said they submitted to Guinness but Guinness got back to them saying that although it was good, they actually wanted the young DJ in a club because the record is for youngest club DJ.
After struggling to find a club that could accommodate the child, they eventually managed to set up Taboo as a space for the attempt. Before this, Hlongwane had been getting his son to practise playing hour-long sets to prepare for the world record.
However, this fell flat again as Taboo nightclub gets busy well after midnight, meaning there were not enough people in the club for the boy to play a set.
Oratile’s talent manager, Lekunutu Seboko, said this didn’t deter them from trying again.
“We definitely want to accommodate him at an earlier time and have an audience for him to play to. It was difficult for us to have to wait for patrons to come to the club as it only started getting packed at 12.30am. We underestimated how long it would take to get an audience in a club.
“If it has to be in a club, we will do it. I have a good relationship with Taboo management and we will see if we can’t make it a day event and have a crowd there,” Seboko said.
The SA’s Got Talent winner’s father said the young star had grown a lot and had a better ear for music since winning the competition in 2015.