South African singer Costa Titch dies on stage during live performance

South African musician and dancer, Costa Titch is dead.

Titch, whose name is Costa Tsobanoglou, reportedly collapsed while performing at the Ultra music festival on Saturday.

The news of Titch’s death was confirmed by entertainment commentator Phil Mphela on his Twitter handle just before midnight and was followed by a string of sad reactions from industry colleagues.

Mphela tweeted: “RIP: Costa Titch.

“Nelspruit-born artist and dancer, real name Costa Tsobanoglou, has passed away. He was 27.”

Titch was born in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga in 1995.

He is known for several hits, including Nkalakatha and Activate.

No official statement has been made by the singer’s family at the time of filing this report, but condolence messages have been pouring in across social media including from popular Nigerian Disk Jockey (DJ) Imohiosen Patrick, professional known as DJ Neptune.

Costa would be remembered for his classic hits such as ‘Big Flexa’ featuring C’Buda M, ‘Maitama’ featuring Nigerian duo Temi and Mayorkun, his feature on Mavin records signee Crayon’s ‘Ijo (Laba Laba)’ remix and 2022 hit ‘Superstar’ with Tanzanian singer Diamond Platnumz.

His unfortunate death comes only a few weeks after another South African musician Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, professionally known as AKA, was shot dead aged 35 in an apparent targeted shooting outside a restaurant in Durban.

The rapper was standing outside Wish, a restaurant on Florida road with his friend Tebello Motsoane, who was also killed in the incident, when a hooded gunman ran up to them and shot from point blank range to Forbes’ head.