Top 10 songs in South Africa: Apple Music’s 2025 year-end list

Which songs led Apple Music’s South African year-end list for 2025? These ten entries introduce the recordings, collaborators and catalogue connections behind the first ten places in that fixed edition.

How this list was selected

The order follows Apple Music’s Top Songs of 2025: South Africa, also readable through its official Shazam playlist page. Its listening window is 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2025, not the calendar year. This measures one platform’s South African listening, not every service or a critics’ vote. Credits and context were checked on 3 November 2026. These are researched recording profiles, not first-hand listening reviews. No placement was sold.

At a glance

Position Song Main credited artists 1 Abantwana Bakho DJ Maphorisa, Xduppy & Kabza De Small 2 Uzizwa Kanjan JAZZWRLD, MaWhoo, Thukuthela & GL_Ceejay 3 Bo Gogo Kelvin Momo & Da Muziqal Chef 4 Bengicela MaWhoo, GL_Ceejay & Thukuthela 5 Ngisakuthanda Zee Nxumalo, TBO & PYY Log Drum King 6 Isaka (6am) Ciza, JAZZWRLD & Thukuthela 7 Biri Marung Mr Pilato, Ego Slimflow & Tebogo G Mashego 8 Ordinary Alex Warren 9 Residuals Chris Brown 10 Vuka Oscar Mbo & JAZZWRLD

1. Abantwana Bakho

Main credits: DJ Maphorisa, Xduppy & Kabza De Small.

The opening entry brings together DJ Maphorisa, Xduppy and Kabza De Small, with Thatohatsi, Young Stunna and Nkosazana Daughter in the featured credits. The catalogue places the recording on NGOMOYA, offering a route into the wider project after hearing the individual song. Maphorisa’s Apple Music catalogue also includes the Scorpion Kings releases, giving a listener another starting point for exploring his work with Kabza. This is a collaborative recording, so the full credit line tells a more complete story than naming only one headline artist. The year-end position belongs to the specified listening window; it is not a claim about the song’s position on a current daily chart.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

2. Uzizwa Kanjan

Main credits: JAZZWRLD, MaWhoo, Thukuthela & GL_Ceejay.

JAZZWRLD, MaWhoo, Thukuthela and GL_Ceejay share the principal credits for this entry. Those names create connections with other recordings in the same list, particularly Bengicela. Apple’s year-end editorial introduction identifies the rise of JAZZWRLD and Thukuthela with the wider emergence of 3-step, providing scene-level context for their presence. For a listener discovering the artists through a familiar title, the useful next step is to follow the credited collaborators as well as the lead search result. The overlap shows how a year-end list can map a network of musicians; it does not mean that every collaboration is the same recording or that every title should be assigned one genre automatically.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

3. Bo Gogo

Main credits: Kelvin Momo & Da Muziqal Chef.

Kelvin Momo and Da Muziqal Chef are joined by Tracy and Thatohatsi in the featured credits. The recording appears on Ntsako, a project listed in Kelvin Momo’s catalogue with the year 2024. Its presence here demonstrates why a 2025 listening chart is not simply a list of songs first released in 2025. Momo’s album catalogue also offers Ivy League, Amukelani and Kurhula as wider discovery routes. There is a separately named Magical Remix of Bo Gogo, so retain the version label when building a playlist from a chart. The entry in this retrospective is the recording identified in the source year-end list.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

4. Bengicela

Main credits: MaWhoo, GL_Ceejay & Thukuthela.

MaWhoo, GL_Ceejay and Thukuthela take the main credit line, with JAZZWRLD named as a featured contributor. The catalogue associates the track with MaWhoo’s Amazwi Okubonga project. Her broader Apple Music discography includes The Chosen and The Sound Of Magic, providing context for a listener moving from a popular collaboration into an artist’s catalogue. The combination of names also connects this recording with Uzizwa Kanjan elsewhere in the ten. Follow those links as a discovery path, while keeping each song and edition distinct. The ranking here reflects the source platform’s annual listening measure, rather than a vote declaring one collaboration artistically superior to another.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

5. Ngisakuthanda

Main credits: Zee Nxumalo, TBO & PYY Log Drum King.

Zee Nxumalo, TBO and PYY Log Drum King are credited alongside featured artists Dj Tearz and Dr Thulz. The recording is associated with Inja Ye Game in the track catalogue. Nxumalo’s Apple Music page also lists collaborations such as Funk55 and Thula Mabota, helping place this song within a broader body of work. The credit line is particularly useful when a song becomes familiar through a short clip: it gives listeners a route to the named recording and its contributors. A single release, an album listing and a later video can carry different dates, so this guide does not treat every catalogue date as the song’s first release.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

6. Isaka (6am)

Main credits: Ciza, JAZZWRLD & Thukuthela.

Ciza, JAZZWRLD and Thukuthela are the credited artists on Isaka (6am). Ciza’s Apple Music artist page identifies a South African dance catalogue and separately lists Isaka II (6am), making the version name important when following the 2025 chart. The shared collaborators also connect the song with other entries in this retrospective. For someone discovering Ciza through this title, the artist page offers a direct route into other releases without relying on an abbreviated social-media caption. This guide identifies the original chart title as printed by the source; it does not combine the plays, credits or identities of similarly named follow-up releases.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

7. Biri Marung

Main credits: Mr Pilato, Ego Slimflow & Tebogo G Mashego.

The full credit line makes this one of the most collaborative entries in the ten. Mr Pilato, Ego Slimflow and Tebogo G Mashego are joined by Sje Konka, Focalistic, DJ Maphorisa, Scotts Maphuma and CowBoii. The track catalogue identifies New Money Gang Records and also associates the recording with a later album edition. That edition information should not be confused with an independently verified debut date. For a listener building a discovery playlist, the many credited contributors provide several routes into related work. Naming the complete group also avoids reducing a collective recording to the best-known guest on the title line.

Recording and credits

8. Ordinary

Main credits: Alex Warren.

Alex Warren brings an international pop entry into a list otherwise strongly represented by South African collaborations. Apple Music’s artist biography describes the California musician’s movement from online video and Hype House into singer-songwriter pop. It identifies Ordinary as a major 2025 success included on You’ll Be Alright, Kid. This is useful context for readers who know the song but have not followed the artist’s earlier work. The national scope of the chart describes where the listening was measured, not a requirement that every performer come from South Africa. Its appearance should therefore be read as part of local listening choices across both domestic and international music.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

9. Residuals

Main credits: Chris Brown.

Residuals provides an R&B entry from Chris Brown. The track catalogue places it on an 11:11 deluxe edition, while Apple Music’s artist biography traces the Virginia singer and dancer’s recording career back to his self-titled 2005 debut. That longer career context helps place an individual year-end track without treating a chart position as a complete artist biography. Album editions and their displayed dates need care: an expanded release can contain music associated with an earlier project. This retrospective therefore identifies the recording and credits without assigning an unverified first-release date or presenting Shazam recognition counts as the number of streams that produced its chart position.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

10. Vuka

Main credits: Oscar Mbo & JAZZWRLD.

Oscar Mbo and JAZZWRLD are credited with Thukuthela as the featured artist. Mbo’s catalogue provides wider discovery routes through projects such as For The Groovists and Have A Groovy Day. It also separately lists an acoustic version of Vuka, which illustrates why the recording’s full title and credits matter when tracing a familiar song. The version in this ten follows the source year-end playlist. For readers exploring the names that recur across the list, JAZZWRLD and Thukuthela form a clear connection with several other entries. That is a useful map of collaborations, while each recording retains its own credit line and release context.

Recording and credits · Artist catalogue and background

Before building your playlist

Match the full title, featured artists and version label. A radio edit, remix, acoustic performance and album recording can be different catalogue entries. Use licensed services and check the available version in your region. The chart can introduce an artist’s wider catalogue, but it is not a list of only new releases or only South African performers.

Sources and updates

The fixed Apple Music year-end edition supplies the order; individual Shazam recording pages and Apple Music artist catalogues support the credits and background. Research checked 3 November 2026. Streaming chart positions and Shazam recognition counts are different measures; no listening totals are inferred here.

Cover: headphones, photo by Martin Vorel / LibreShot, published 23 October 2015 under CC0 1.0. Generic archive illustration; web-sized source image.