An interview with the singer behind the hit Water

Young singer Tyla is already crowned Grammy

Like the phenomenal success of Rihanna As shown, you can come from far away from the American star system and become one of the biggest stars in the world. An example and a major inspiration for young Johannesburg singers Tyla, 22 years old. She was the one who provided the opening acts for the star’s ex-boyfriend in 2023, Chris Brown. Since his first single, to be late, Released in 2019, amassing billions of streams, its glow expands day by day. Between concerts for the Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Milan, a song, Overdue (2021), appears on the series soundtrack Netflix blood and water, A photo signed and posted by a major label (Epic Records). Kim Kardashian On her Instagram account, Tyla is one of pop’s rising stars.

Things sped up when she left the tube water (2023), which has 146 million views on YouTube and has spawned a challenge on TikTok. He is then followed on Instagram Rosaliaheard by Cardi B In an Instagram story Remix by and Travis Scott. Other feats of arms? Barack Obama playlisted one of his songs and Tyla won the award for Best African Music Performance at the 66th edition. Grammy Awards On 4 February. He is also the youngest African artist to win a Grammy.

Although she had to cancel her tour (and an appearance at Coachella) due to injury, her rise isn’t over. This Friday, March 22, Tyla will release her self-titled debut album. There we will find the inevitable water Also catchy titles likeOn and on Or truth or dare Or Butterflies Also collaborating with Tams, Gunna, Becky G and Travis Scott.

Tyla’s debut in the music industry

It only took a handful of singles (It’s getting lateoverdue, kept thinkingTo last) and a few swinging dance steps Tik Tok So that all eyes are focused on Tyla’s beautiful face and her voluptuous voice. However, as she explained to us during a meeting in Paris, nothing predestined her for such success. “I was born and raised in Johannesburg in a large family of five children. My father is an accountant and my mother doesn’t really work, but has tried every job in the world. She is very creative. She makes jewelry, candles… I am very close to my brothers and sisters, born a year apart from each other. My parents were very strict, so we were often locked in the house, and thus forced to be best friends.”

As she tells us about her vivid childhood, we almost picture a picture full of shimmering colors, cries and laughter. “With my siblings, we used to make a lot of noise, She continues. We were allowed to visit the local store from time to time with our cousins. Sometimes my mother would also ask us to help sell old clothes. We would randomly pick a street corner, put a blanket on the ground and ask people to buy from us. We also went to the place where taxis stop to sell fat cake, Also known as Magwinia, African Pastries. We were actually my mother’s salesmen (Laughs). We weren’t rich, but I loved my childhood!“

Tyla, in Rihanna’s footsteps

child, Tyla Wrote songs for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. As a teenager, she sang “free-style” to the instrumentation of well-known songs she found on YouTube, searching for songs about boys she thought were cute. Believing in her lucky stars, when she was in high school, she dared to post it on Instagram one day, sending private messages to the stars such as Rihanna, Drake and DJ Khaled. If no one answers her, but someone who is still her manager notices it, then the fairy tale begins. Every weekend, the singer records music in the studio, with his best friend, with whom he has fun between takes.

If the parents of Tyla Listened to a lot of music at home, incl Michael Jackson, they weren’t sure a career as an artist was a good idea for their daughter, fearing that, like so many of their loved ones, the dream would end. Tyla was considering studying mining engineering before her passion caught up with her. “I always felt like I was made to be an artist. When I was growing up I was only interested in singing and writing songs. My first song was about a boy, my crush at school. It’s always about the boy… It wasn’t really cool. No one ever listened to him. I even tore a page out of my diary so no one could find it.”

An outstanding dancer on stage and in her videos, Tyla is also a born artist. “I already loved doing small performances, in front of my family or my school friends. And I registered for every possible competition in school. I loved being in front of the camera, making videos, taking photos.“

Tyla, Amapiano’s rising star and R’n’B

Her ultra-sexy videos – amassing millions of views – and her silky voice are not the only explanations for the craze she’s sparked, in line with the great R’n’B stars of the 2000s, from Aaliyah to Ciara. Tyla. His attachment to his roots also has a lot to do with it. According to influential media Pitchfork, she is there”Princess of the Aempians”, a hypnotic South African music genre. The artist actually mixes pop and R’n’B with empiano. She also invented a name to define her music: “Popiano“L”Amapiano Deep house is a musical genre that blends jazz, lounge sounds and gospel soul. His songs, made DIY using cheap software, are from the streets, townships and sweaty clubs. The term comes from a Zulu word meaning “pianos”, and its gentle and slow tempo plunges listeners into a kind of trance, inviting swaying hips and coming together on the dance floor. Like its Nigerian cousin Afrobeats, the music described as “post-apartheid” born in 2012 is now setting the earth on fire.

I am very proud of where I come from and my South African culture, so I want to represent it around the world. Tyla

If artists viz Jorja Smith And Major Lazer establishes his allusions in his songs, above all Ameppiano tells the story of his native country. It owes much to Kweto, another homegrown music genre that emerged in Soweto after apartheid, in 1990, when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected black president. The kwaito People have a soundtrack. Music that reflects a new freedom of expression and a new energy. “Amapiano is a style that is truly unique to South Africa, Tyla explains. Here, we hear a lot of house, jazz, kveto and empiano coming from these genres. We recognize Amapiano for its very powerful percussive bass line and ‘log drums’, wooden drums with a warm sound reproduced ‘electronically’ by the software. These are the sounds that everyone likes in my country, that we hear everywhere: on the street, in stores, on public transport. But the masters of the game are DJs, such as DJ Maphorisa, who create and play music in clubs. All empiano artists, like singer Sha Sha or rapper Nasty C, form one big family. We all know each other and we play in the same club.”

The global hype surrounding Amapiano, who infiltrated a trendy Parisian club with covid, is not offending anyone. Tyla. “I am happy that the genre is traveling today and finding success elsewhere, because we know this music and have danced to it for many years. As long as artists who don’t come from South Africa and who monopolize it know where it comes from, that’s fine with me.“

Tyla bursts with single water

The artist also emphasizes his pride in representing South African voices abroad. “I am very proud of where I come from and my culture, I want to represent it around the world. I grew up listening to pop and R’n’B. I’m a fan of Aaliyah, Rihanna, Beyonce, Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight and that influences me. But I wanted to add my ‘African touch’ and incorporate the sounds of the piano and Afrobeats into my tunes.”

In his clips, Tyla Also wants to pay tribute to his background. “I wanted to shoot a video for my song kept thinking in my country so we can find authentic dance movements from here. Because people who are not from South Africa can learn these movements, but the vibration will be different.“

Thanks to his tube, especially water, Tyla Even if she envisions a duet with an R’n’B star, she has achieved many of her dreams. Doja the cat. She met famous singers her. And SZA, and were able to travel outside their country. In front of us, stars in her eyes, she can’t believe she’s in Paris. However, she will have to get used to it, as the rising star, who is preparing her debut album, is far from shining.

Tyla (2024) by Tyla, Available March 22, 2024.