Tyla: Rising star redefining pop and music

Whether you can’t get “Water” out of your head or are just feeling curious about the youngest African artist to ever take home a Grammy, we know you’re here because you have questions about Tyla Laura Seethal, more commonly known simply as Tyla.

If so, you’re in luck because we’re about to break down everything you need to know about this rising pop sensation from Johannesburg.

Early life and influences

Tyla’s music shows off her South African roots with a fusion of genres and sounds. Here’s how her early years shaped her eventual career in music.

Childhood background

According to the South African publication SowetanLIVE, Tyla was born in 2002 in Edenvale, a small city on the outskirts of Johannesburg. She was the third of five children with a mix of Indian, Zulu, Mauritian and Irish ancestry.

Tyla attended Edenglen High School in Johannesburg and graduated in 2019, the same year her music career began taking off.

Musical influences

Just listening to Tyla’s music is enough to tell you that her work is inspired just as much by global pop stars as it is by the diverse community in which she was raised. But if you won’t take our word for it, take a gander at this quote from the artist herself.

“Growing up, I used to watch a lot of Michael Jackson and Rihanna concerts. I loved it and wanted to do that,” Tyla told SowetanLIVE, but clarified that “my parents and family [would] tell me to be realistic.”

The star has also cited Shakira, Aaliyah and Cassie among her influences.

Those big dreams have certainly paid off for the singer, thanks to both her pop-trained instincts and her deep roots in the Amapiano scene. Amapiano, which literally means “the pianos” in Zulu, is a South African subgenre of house music that features indigenous African languages against a backdrop of groovy bass and synths.

Education and training

Thanks to Tyla’s single-minded focus on creating a career in music, her formal education ended once she’d graduated high school, against the wishes of Tyla’s parents. At first, the young singer considered going to college to study mining engineering, hoping to appease her parents and find a stable career at the same time.

“But after a lot of begging and crying,” Tyla recounted to Rolling Stone, “I told them I wanted to be a singer, and they finally agreed to let me take a gap year.”

Unfortunately for Tyla, the year was 2020, so the global pandemic quickly put an end to whatever plans she may have had for her gap year. Like everyone else, the singer soon found herself isolated and relying on social media to find fans and hone her sound. But her luck was about to change.

Breakthrough in music

Despite Tyla’s age, just 23 years old, this South African singer-songwriter has already built an impressive resume of accomplishments. Here’s how that gap year turned into a full-blown music career.

First single release

By late 2019, Tyla had released her debut single, “Getting Late,” produced by and featuring fellow South African DJ Kooldrink. The next year, during her break from school, she recorded the accompanying music video. 

Due to the limitations brought on by the pandemic, Tyla didn’t have access to the kinds of expensive filmmaking, impressive sets and hordes of backup dancers you might expect in a music video. Instead, her manager shot and funded the video himself.

Boosted by the video (which won the South African Music Award for Best Music Video of the Year in 2022), the song slowly gained traction until it became an all-out viral hit.

Rise to fame

As fate would have it, “Getting Late” was only the beginning of Tyla’s reign as the self-appointed Queen of Popiano. The single’s success led to a bidding war over the new singer by record labels, out of which Epic emerged victorious.

With Epic’s backing, the budding star traveled the world, sharpened her skills and made new connections with the artists and writers who would help create Tyla’s debut album. Those collaborators—Ari PenSmith, Mocha Bands, Believve and Sammy SoSo—were instrumental in the making of the single that would launch Tyla to global stardom, a summer banger called “Water.”

“Water,” an undeniably catchy pop anthem with Tyla’s trademark popiano elements, steadily climbed the Billboard Hot 100 from number 67 to number 7. The breakthrough single was buoyed by a popular TikTok dance, in addition to its remixes featuring rapper Travis Scott and DJ Marshmello.

Key collaborations

As mentioned previously, Tyla’s work has always been uplifted by the contributions of her various collaborators, especially her fellow African artists. Her 2023 single, “Girl Next Door,” for example, featured Nigerian Afrobeat artist Ayra Starr.

The singer’s career has also received plenty of international support. Tyla opened for American R&B singer Chris Brown on the European leg of his Under the Influence tour. That gave her the opportunity to showcase her music in front of sold-out crowds from London to Paris to Munich and beyond.

For her self-titled debut, Tyla stuck with this multi-national approach to making music. The album’s 14 tracks feature Latin American artist Becky G, Jamaican dancehall DJ Skillibeng, Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems and South African producer Kelvin Momo, among other collaborators. Melding all of these sounds and backgrounds led to an album with undeniable global appeal, cementing Tyla’s place as South Africa’s first bona fide pop star.

Musical style and themes

One of the biggest drivers behind Tyla’s meteoric rise to the top of the music stratosphere is her unique style, which combines pop and R&B rhythms from 1990s hitmakers like Aaliyah with cutting-edge dancefloor-friendly beats ported directly from South Africa. The artist herself calls her style “popiano,” a portmanteau of pop and the South African genre Amapiano.

Tyla’s dance moves are another big part of her appeal, so her music relies just as much on undeniable beats as it does sultry vocal performances. In terms of subject matter, Tyla generally sticks to familiar topics like falling in and out of love, hooking up and breaking up. Like the music itself, these themes reflect the artist’s position in her life: She’s still discovering herself as a musician, a lover and a person.

Major hits and achievements

As should be fairly obvious by now, Tyla’s biggest hit yet has undeniably been “Water,” and even the various award academies have taken notice. Most notably, Tyla became the youngest African artist to ever take home a Grammy, as well as the inaugural winner of the brand new category, when she won Best African Music Performance for “Water” in 2024.

Besides that major accomplishment, Tyla has brought home enough statues to make her parents proud, including the BET Awards for Best New Artist and Best International Act, an MTV Video Music Award for the “Water” video and a Gold Derby Music Award for Best R&B Album for her self-titled debut.

On top of those wins, Tyla has already racked up a number of impressive award nominations, like being nominated for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist at the BET Awards, Outstanding New Artist and Outstanding International Song at the 2025 NAACP Image Awards and Best African Music Artist at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Impact on the global music scene

As one of the first South African artists to land a major global record deal, Tyla has already made a lasting mark on the international music scene. But she doesn’t plan to squander that opportunity, instead professing a desire to bring more eyes to all African artists, not just herself.

That commitment to cultural authenticity informs not only Tyla’s music but also her performances. During appearances on The Voice and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2023, Tyla incorporated quintessentially South African visuals and language. Her stage design alluded to apartheid-era South African speakeasies called shebeens, while her lyrics were sprinkled with Zulu slang.

These displays of cultural pride may seem small, but for a country that’s been underrepresented on the global music stage for far too long, every shoutout is a huge step toward getting the long-awaited recognition.

Future aspirations and career trajectory

If Tyla’s career thus far is any indication of what’s to come, you can expect a very bright future for this South African starlet. The young artist plans to continue working on her music while branching out into new areas, such as fashion, makeup and acting. Keep an eye on magazine covers, billboards and even movie screens if you can’t wait to see what Tyla makes out of her extremely promising debut.

Still feeling curious about South Africa’s young star? Check out our archives to read more about Tyla.