Product Code Database
Tyla Laura Seethal, Mononym known as Tyla, is a South African singer and songwriter. Her musical style is characterised by a fusion of Pop music and amapiano, with many publications dubbing her "Queen of Popiano". She gained international recognition after the release of her 2023 single "Water", which entered the top ten in multiple countries including her native South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Born and raised in the East Rand of Johannesburg, Tyla signed with Epic Records in 2021 following the domestic success of her 2019 debut single, "Getting Late". Her song "Water" was the first song by a South African soloist to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 in 55 years and was awarded the inaugural Grammy Awards for Best African Music Performance. The single preceded her self-titled debut album (2024), which was released to critical acclaim and moderate commercial success. Subsequent releases include the extended play We Wanna Party (2025) and the single "Chanel", which achieved further commercial success.
Tyla is the youngest African artist in history to win a Grammy Award. Her other accolades include two MTV Video Music Awards, two BET Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, among nominations for a Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello Award, a Soul Train Music Award and nine South African Music Awards.
During her final year of high school, Tyla began pursuing a music career, sharing original songs and Cover version on Instagram while actively seeking opportunities in the music industry. She was discovered by her first manager, Garth von Glehn, who arranged her initial recording sessions. She spent every weekend of her final high school year in the recording studio.
As of 2021, she started studying towards a degree in mining engineering, and after much persuasion and "a lot of crying", her parents agreed to let Tyla take a year off university to attempt to lift her music career off the ground. She then signed a recording contract with Epic Records through a joint venture with Fax Records in the United States in May 2021. She followed up her debut single with the singles "Overdue" in October 2021, and "To Last" in November 2022.
She released the song "Water" in July 2023 as the lead single from her self-titled debut studio album. After spawning a viral dance challenge on the social media platform TikTok, "Water" peaked within the top 10 in multiple countries including South Africa,Peak chart positions in South Africa:
the United States, and the United Kingdom. Tyla became the first and youngest-ever South African soloist in 55 years to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 with "Water", following Hugh Masekela's "Grazing in the Grass" in 1968.
Tyla performed "Water" live on Bianca Ingrosso in Sweden and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the United States. The music video for "Water" was released on 6 October 2023, it accumulated 3 million views on YouTube in three days. Tyla was then featured on a remix version of "Girls Need Love" by Summer Walker, released as part of the latter's Girls Mix extended play in October 2023. On the eve of December 2023, she announced the release of her debut studio album, Tyla (2024), and simultaneously released three songs: "Truth or Dare", "On and On", and "Butterflies", as promotional singles from the project on an extended-play of the same name. Tyla performed a medley of "Water" and "Truth or Dare" on the season 24 finale of The Voice on 19 December 2023. At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2024, Tyla won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance with "Water", also becoming the youngest-ever African artist to win a Grammy Award.
Tyla's self-titled debut album was officially released via Fax and Epic Records on 22 March 2024. The accompanying music video for "Art" was released in tandem with the album. Tyla received widespread critical acclaim, and was a top-25 album in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, and Switzerland. Tyla received the most nominations at the 18th Metro FM Music Awards in South Africa, with six nods. She went on to win the most awards at the 2024 BET Awards, tying with Usher and Victoria Monét at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California, where she delivered a live performance of "Jump" for the first time alongside Gunna and Skillibeng.
On 11 October 2024, Tyla released the deluxe edition of her self-titled debut studio album comprising three additional songs including "Push 2 Start". Musically, "Push 2 Start" is a reggae-infused amapiano Pop music-R&B track, which was positively received and its music video premiered on YouTube on 8 November 2024. Tyla performed at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2024.
On 11 November 2024, she made her debut appearance at the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs), performing her singles "Push 2 Start" and "Water". That night, she won three EMAs for ‘Best African Act’, ‘Best Afrobeats Artist’ and ‘Best R&B Artist’. On 5 and 7 December 2024, Tyla held two concerts in her native South Africa, in Cape Town and Pretoria, respectively, with an additional date added in Pretoria for 18 January 2025. These shows preceded the start of her Tyla Tour in 2025, mainly consisting of Music festival appearances throughout spring and summer 2025, with additional shows in Europe to be rescheduled after Tyla sustained an injury.
"Bliss" and "Is It" were included on her second extended-play WWP, also known as We Wanna Party, which was released on 25 July 2025. Tyla described the EP as "a bridge to the second album", which is set to be released later in 2025, and is "going to be such a totally different vibe than what people are expecting". On 7 September 2025, Tyla attended the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards, where she won the Best Afrobeats award for "Push 2 Start" (2024), marking her second win in the category after she previously won the award for "Water" (2023) at the 2024 ceremony. While attending the ceremony, Tyla wore an outfit on the red carpet from the Chanel SS '93 collection, and later shared an Instagram post with the caption "PUT ME IN CHANELLLLL", seemingly hinting at the release of a song she had previously teased in July of that year titled "Chanel". Tyla featured on "Talk To Me", with Damiano David and Nile Rodgers, which was released on 11 September 2025. On 24 October, Tyla released the song "Chanel", which became her highest charting entry on the Billboard Global 200 since "Water" (2023), peaking at number 30. On 11 November 2025, Tyla embarked on her second concert tour, the We Wanna Party Tour, with a sold-out show at Tokyo's Ariake Arena.
On 15 December 2025, the South Korea entertainment company Hybe announced a global management partnership with Tyla's management company, Africa Creative Agency (ACA). Under the newly created NFO LLC, HYBE and ACA's Brandon Hixon and Colin Gayle will manage Tyla as part of a larger "expansion strategy" to "amplify" continental African artists using Hixon and Gales' creative expertise and HYBE's "scale and resources."
At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, Tyla won the Best African Music Performance award for her song Push 2 Start. She became the first artist to win the category twice, having previously won in 2024 for "Water". She won ahead of nominees including Ayra Starr, Burna Boy, Davido, and Eddy Kenzo. Tyla also announced her upcoming second studio album, A-Pop, set for release in summer 2026.
| 2024 | A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter (Netflix) | Herself | |
| 2024 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (Amazon Prime) | |||
| 2025 | 2025 Kids' Choice Awards (Paramount & Nickelodeon) |
|
|
