2 languages
Tyla
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Tyla Seethal was born in 2002 in Edenvale, near Johannesburg, and grew up in the South African city. During her final school year she posted her own songs and covers on Instagram and spent every weekend in the studio. In 2019 her first single, Getting Late, was released and was a success in her home country. In 2021 she signed to Epic Records, while she was actually studying mining engineering. Her parents gave her a year off to try her luck.
Music and breakthrough
The international breakthrough song was Water in 2023. A dance challenge on TikTok made it known worldwide. Tyla was the first South African solo artist in 55 years in the American Billboard Hot 100, after Hugh Masekela with Grazing in the Grass in 1968. In 2024 she won the first Grammy for Best African Music Performance with Water. Her self-titled debut album Tyla came out in March 2024, and the second album, A*Pop, followed in 2026.
Influence
She calls her style Popiano: a blend of pop and amapiano, the South African house style with slow, rolling rhythms and deep bass lines. Tyla shows that today's African dance music can break straight into the global pop charts, without first having to resemble a Western sound.
Listening
Water · Tyla, 2023Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
Mentioned in other articles
- Amapiano Genre
In the 2020s amapiano went around the world; Tyla's Water (2023) won a Grammy.