Bio
SINGER - ENTREPRENEUR
Wax Dey, born Nde Ndifonka, is a Cameroonian singer, writer, entrepreneur and activist.
He was nominated for Best African Pop Artist at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), and he won Best Male Artist, Central Africa at the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) in Lagos in November 2016. He was also nominated in the category of Impact Artist at the 2019 Cameroon Heroes Awards. He was awarded Top 35 African under 35 by Young People in International Affairs (YPIA) in 2014. In May 2010, he was named by Ladybrille Magazine as Man of the Month, for the use of music in spreading social awareness among youths. In 2015, Wax Dey was nominated Best Humanitarian Artist and Best Dancehall at the Africa Music Magazine Awards, and Best Male Artist at the Cameroon Eleganzza Entertainment Awards. He won the award for Best African Collaboration at the 2014 All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) for the D’banj-led African hit ‘Cocoa Na Chocolate”. He was named by Avance Media among the 50 Most Influential Young Cameroonians of 2016, in the category of Entertainment.
In 2020, Wax Dey was knighted in the Order of Valour in the Republic of Cameroon and named National Coordinator of the Musical Art Sector in 2021.
The hit song ‘Miss Real, Mr Regular’ established Wax Dey in the mainstream South African industry. The song was remixed by local rappers and House Djs, appearing on several compilations such as SONY Music’s 2010 ONE AFRICA All Stars and House of Flava mixed by YFM’s Mo Flava. His song ‘Forever’ featuring Omawumi also became the first Cameroonian song to enter the Nigerian urban charts. South African blog ‘Just Curious’ listed him in ‘Africa’s Hotties of 2014’.
He has shared the stage with a wide variety of artists including Backstreet Boys, Knaan and Yvonne Chaka Chaka.
‘360 Degrees’ was Wax Dey’s third studio album. He described the album as a collaboration project with Cameroonian producer Cornel, Angolan producer/vocal arranger, O’magic, and Africa’s top artist such as Yemi Alade, Casper Nyovest, Banky W, Simphiwe Dana and others. The album contains urban sounds and rhythms form West, Southern and Central Africa, based on Wax Dey’s extensive experience working with and performing with top African artists over the past few years. The album includes collaborations such as ’360’ featuring Nasty C, “Viva Mandela” ft Cassper Nyovest, “Ladysmith Black Mambazo” ft Yungscar, and ‘Saka Makossa’ ft Yemi Alade.
Wax Dey’s fourth album Final Light was released at a live concert at Las Vegas Douala, Cameroon on 9 May 2019. It contained the singles, Non Non, and the hit collaboration “Magufuli” on which he featured Mr Leo and Locko.
Television
He has worked as a TV presenter on Africa Magic, and has appeared on top South African soapie ‘Generations’. Wax Dey became the first Cameroonian to appear and perform in the Big Brother Africa House, when he joined the finalists for a dinner performance a night before the grand finale. He has also appeared on several other top African shows. In 2013, Wax Dey started his own primetime reality TV show, Number One Girl, which has been broadcast on CANAL 2 and Equinoxe TV in Cameroon. The reality contest aims to find a girl who will be trained and prepared for the spotlight, and has run 3 seasons, with a fourth billed for 2020.
Activist
As an activist, Wax Dey has led several big humanitarian campaigns across the African continent. For example, he founded South Africa’s Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Week which has become an annual Government calendar event. He has worked extensively with the United Nations and Africa’s biggest musicians in fighting ills such as human trafficking and xenophobia across Africa. He is currently a United Nations High Level Influencer.
In 2013, he joined the ONE Campaign, and helped establish the brand across Africa. There he co-led one of Africa’s biggest agricultural campaigns, where he brought together 19 artist on behalf of the ONE Campaign, to perform the hit song ‘Cocoa Na Chocolate’ let by Nigeria’s D’banj. The campaign rallied over 2 million Africans (mostly from Nigeria) around a petition to African leaders to increase investments in agriculture. In 2015, he also initiated and co-produced the song ‘Strong Girl’, led by Waje and featuring top singers including Yemi Alade and Judith Sephuma. The project rallied over 1.5 million Africans to sign a petition pushing African leaders to empower women for better economic participation.
He has served as a brand ambassador for the ONE Movement (an international anti-racism/xenophobia initiative championed by the United Nations), and Brand Ambassador for the City of Joburg, helding the city in a global campaign to manage its reputation that came under threat with xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
Business
While studying law at the University of Buea in Cameroon, Wax Dey made a name for himself as a concert organizer, and there he set up his first formal business, a documentation and printing service servicing students. In 2008, Wax co-founded Lolhiphop Records, a pan-African recording and music publishing company. Lolhiphop Records was involved in the publishing of the 2010 World Cup song, Waka Waka, and continues to boast a decent roaster of African hits.
Through Lolhiphop Records, Wax also remained active in the humanitarian field, undertaking projects such as a music therapy programme for children in South Africa (with Save the Children UK) and a counter-xenophobia campaign known as My Brother's Keeper, run with Kalawa Jazzmee Records and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
IN 2015, Wax Dey co-founded Calabash Associates, a Cameroon and South Africa-based company with interests in music production, strategic communications, events production, talent management and creative consulting.
Author
His first published book, “The Chosen One” was used for Grade 11 English in South African public schools. He has also published several short plays and wrote a chapter “Somalia”’ in the Rutledge Encyclopedia of Adolescence. He is working on his second book, but has not released the title yet.
