‘The Diary of an Independent Zulu Queer Queen’: An Analysis of Toya Delazy’s Curated Persona on Instagram

Abstract

The curation of an online persona has recently become critical for the popular musician. The persona, or public identity, is a tool for self- advertisement and audience growth. The phenomenon of online persona curation by musicians is now commonplace, but there remains potential for more research on how they uniquely combine their social media presence with their music. While some work exists  concerning social media utilisation within the classical music sphere, South African manifestations in popular music have gone unstudied.  This article outlines how UK-based South African popular musician Toya Delazy articulates an intersectional identity within a  curated persona. The research conducted focused on her Instagram profile in combination with her musical output. Furthermore, the  article discusses how Delazy’s persona appeals to several micro-publics in a manner conducive to growing her audience. The research expanded Richard Rogers’ list of digital objects to include emojis and captions, thereby claiming the relevance of several digital objects  (emojis, hashtags and captions) to the articulation of identity within the persona. The article also demonstrates how the concept of an  ‘era’ may be utilised to understand how a musician’s curated persona shifts with time.