Maryke Buffel

Age: 22

Hometown: Paarl

Occupation: Singer

Maryke was travelling the world last year and performing at glamorous hotspots as a singer, but she left it all behind to enter Idols SA.

“I have been travelling around Europe, meaning Malaga, Mallorca, Menorca, Barcelona, etc, doing tribute shows for different companies with different groups,” she explains. “But I always knew it was temporary so this was my year to enter Idols and be an original artist instead of doing tribute shows.”

Maryke says she’s been singing from around the early age of five, “but the actual moment when I realized that I want to keep doing this was in 2000 when Destiny’s Child had a hit single with ‘Independent Woman’,” she says.

“I was amazed by their vocal ability. I knew this is my path of choice – being able to entertain people and perform on the biggest stages in the world.”