Tyla’s music pushes boundaries. Infused with her vibrant personality, her songs offer an innovative take on pop and R&B, shimmering with the euphoria of South African amapiano, and an otherworldly approach to production that makes every track feel like something totally new.
The Johannesburg native introduced herself internationally with her debut “Getting Late” featuring Kooldrink, a bouncy, lust-filled track. Her promise in the chorus—“I won’t waste your time”—took on a double meaning. Suddenly, the passionate artist whose cold DMs to music industry power players had gone unanswered was a global lightning rod for bold self-expression. “Been Thinking” and “To Last,” her debut singles via Epic Records, pushed Tyla’s artistry forward and solidified her versatility as she bounded towards her goals, while her beloved collaboration with Arya Starr, “Girl Next Door,” secured Tyla her first Billboard chart appearance and had her knocking on the door of mainstream success.
With “Water,” Tyla blew the door off its hinges. The ubiquitous hit became the South African star’s first career Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #7, helping the global star make Billboard history as the highest-charting African female soloist in Hot 100 history. “Water” also soared to #1 at Billboard’s Urban Radio chart, and earned two more #1 placements on the Billboard Afrobeats and Billboard R&B Songs charts. The song earned Tyla her first-career GRAMMY Award for Best African Music Performance in 2024, an American TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and critical acclaim from Billboard, Cosmopolitan, i-D Magazine, Insider, Office, Rolling Stone, UPROXX, and more.
The release of her official debut album in March 2024, the self-titled TYLA, helped affirm the singer-songwriter as the budding pop superstar she has worked to be, earning her a historic Billboard debut as the highest-charting African female soloist ever on the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums chart. The 14-track LP, which features Gunna, Tems, Travis Scott, Skillibeng and Becky G, notched Top 5 debuts on the Current R&B Album Chart (#1), the R&B Overall Consumption Chart (#2), and the Current R&B & Hip Hop Chart (#3). Furthermore, all 12 of the album’s songs earned Top 50 debuts on the Afrobeats Songs Chart, including the simultaneous occupation of seven of its Top 10 slots. “Water” maintained over 25 consecutive weeks at #1, and “Truth Or Dare” (#3), “Art” (#4) and “No. 1” (#5) all joined the smash hit single with peaks within the chart’s Top 5.
The NABIL-directed music video for “Truth Or Dare” has been viewed over 15 million times in the first three months following its release. Tyla’s performance of the song on the finale of NBC’s The Voice has been viewed over a million times. The singer also performed the bubbling hit on the network’s famed year-end program, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, known as an important rite of passage for artists en route to superstardom, in 2023. The marquee TV appearances didn’t stop for Tyla as 2024 kicked up. Her 2024 single “ART” received the live performance treatment in April on the prestigious The Late Show with Stephen Colbert stage.
“I once thought pop music was just straight-up radio music, that catchy music—which it is—but I feel like it’s just music that everyone can relate to, dance to, sing to,” Tyla says. “I’d love to be that pop star, especially that type of role model for other African artists because we have amazing, huge artists, but we need more people born in Africa to take that spot. When I was younger, I obviously had the dream to be the biggest pop star, but it’s not something that happens every day for an African artist.”
Still, despite her big dreams, Tyla is doing her best to remain carefree, an approach she demonstrates on “Water”. Prior to the song’s ascent up the charts, it enjoyed massive viral success, racking up over three billion views and providing the inspiration for over two million posts. The heightened engagement was a sign of things to come. A few short months later, Tyla was performing the record on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and teaching Jennifer Hudson its viral dance on Hudson’s renowned daytime talk show. The magic of “Water” spread quickly.
Tyla’s parents fostered a musically rich childhood home, playing the likes of Aaliyah, Boyz II Men, Michael Jackson, Mi Casa, and Rihanna while she did chores. She often danced with her sisters—“I was that child that wanted to be seen by everyone”—and as soon as her mother told her she could sing, she never stopped. As a child, she made up songs for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. She was 12 when she penned songs more seriously in her diary, which led to writing and singing originals to post to Instagram as a high schooler. She messaged any and everyone who worked in music, to mostly no avail.
Before catching the attention of a manager, Tyla was “on the verge” of studying mining engineering, because of the inherent uncertainty attached to artistic pursuits. “A lot of people in my family wanted to become musicians, and it didn’t work out, so that’s all my parents knew. They didn’t want that for me, and it was obviously out of love,” she says, noting she now has her parents’ undying support. “I had to make the decision: ‘Mom and Dad, I’m so sorry, but I’m gonna go for this.”
Tyla’s family, friends, and newfound collaborators propped up her confidence and encouraged her. Most importantly, to unlock what had always been inside of her, she kept showing up for herself. “Getting Late” was the breakthrough, and her late 2021 song “Overdue” featuring DJ Lag and Kooldrink soundtracked the second-season trailer of Netflix’s South African teen drama Blood & Water, but “Been Thinking” and “To Last” found Tyla in full control of her own story, especially the emotional “To Last.”
Making that song made me realize that I was born for this, because I wrote the hook lyrics years ago in the shower,” she says. “I was just singing random words, and all of a sudden, I started singing, ‘You never gave us a chance / It’s like you never wanted to last.’ I grabbed my phone and recorded it.” The piano-laced, pop-leaning track was inspired by her friend’s one-sided relationship, leaving her to wonder about feeling disposable. Those feelings have since subsided.
By continuing to follow her intuition, Tyla is primed to build out her fan base and maximize her reach. “I can’t wait for the day I perform in front of thousands of people outside of Africa,” she says. “And I just can’t wait for people to know that I’m the girl from South Africa that has songs playing on their radios.”
Tyla followed the release of her debut album with a deluxe edition, TYLA +, which boasts three additional singles, including “PUSH 2 START,” the R&B-heavy “BACK to YOU,” and “SHAKE AH.