Crimson lights conflagrate the stage. They shine on dancers in ripped outfits, apparently fresh from a makeout sesh with the Tasmanian Devil. Gyrating dancers part to reveal the silhouette of a body bejeweled. Spotlights drown her in a tangerine haze as she sways and sings. You manage to see that the jewels not only adorn her top and skirt– they are her top and skirt, a veritable network of stars glittering in a universe of dance. As seductive tones filter through your ears, exhorting you to breathe her in and make her water… you just can’t help but sway with her.
This is the aesthetic appeal of Jo’burg up-and-comer Tyla, an amapiano (or popiano if you're nasty!). The music she performs is a unique blend of amapiano beats and pop grooves, encompassing both Rihanna and Kelvin Momo. For the uninitiated, NPR reporter Sidney Madden has got the low-down: “Amapiano is a new musical movement that started in the townships of South Africa in the 2010s. Roughly translated from Zulu to mean 'the pianos' or ‘piano people’, amapiano is a mash-up of a few different genres: deep house, jazz, kwaito and log drum percussives. Together it all creates entrancing, mid-tempo music that’s a cultural staple of South Africa’s party scene.” Amapiano is ‘struggle music’, having its roots in the tumultuous aftermath of South African apartheid. Its slower, thumping tempo (perfect for vigorous hip dancing!) is rooted in melancholy minor chords that become uplifting when woven with Tyla’s sensual vocals and lush instrumentation. That’s not to say the melancholy is altogether eliminated; several songs off her self-titled debut album allude to tragic romance, and Tems’ dark and dusky voice on ‘No.1’ croons of moving on from a toxic relationship. Music and dance can serve as pillars of confidence in the stormy seas of uncertainty buffeting us daily, and swaying in the gentle waves of popiano tunes, it’s hard not to feel her self-assured strength in your very soul.
‘Water’ The Plans For This Artist? (#sorrynotsorry)
Tyla always wanted to be the African pop star she wasn’t seeing in mainstream media, inspired by contemporary African musical acts such as Tems, Kelvin Momo, and Asake. She posted content on “every singing app, every competition app, every social media app” from an early age before making it big with ‘Getting Late’ just out of high school. She released ‘Getting Late’ in 2019 to show her parents she was serious about being a musical artist, so they gave her a year to prove her vision. Working with a global pandemic and a shoestring budget (bling and bucks flaunted by her and her collaborator Kooldrink notwithstanding), Tyla released the video for ‘Getting Late’ in 2021 to widespread acclaim. As hoped, Tyla’s star truly rose with her hit single ‘Water’.
When the song got hot on TikTok, she made the best of the situation by choreographing a dance challenge, and before we knew it– there it was. A jam. A bop. A song of the summer. A hit song about having fun that makes you wanna have fun has been hard to get a good one in the past few years, what with the rise of music streaming and the slow decline of radio as a useful metric for a song’s popularity– but there are always a few. Meghan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer”, the Barbie movie soundtrack, the entirety of Sabrina Carpenter. But something about that South African heat boiling in the song makes it come alive. It’s hard not to fall in love with this woman, just a little. Trust: you’re not alone.
Tell me you wouldn’t marry her. Go on, tell me.
This artist’s career is on an excellent track. If you were hoping to see her in concert (you do, don’t lie to me now), you’ll have to wait a while; a recent injury prevents her from dancing, which unfortunately is kind of her thing, so her North American tour was canceled in March. Tyla’s Tygers will just have to make do with new music videos and a grooving new single to go with everything else. Bummer, huh?
A Colored Debate
As bright as Tyla’s star has shone, the fact remains she too is a human, singing beautifully to humans while living among humans. Sometimes, these humans use different words to mean the same thing, or the same word to mean different things. Infuriating, I know; that is why I, Morfglorfgalord, prefer to converse in my native Schmorgborgian. This linguistic foible is brought up not to pass judgment on anyone, but rather reflect a potentially educational culture clash.
The comparatively tame drama started in the Breakfast Club studio. When Charlamagne Tha God brought up that Tyla identifies as ‘colored’, her associate in the studio asked to move onto the next question, sparking conflict in the comments and raising concerns that she was attempting to downplay her race. She responded with a tweet: “Never denied my blackness, idk where that came from… I’m both Coloured in South Africa and a Black woman. As a woman of the culture, it’s ‘and,’ not ‘or’.” Considering how frequently Twitterisms occur in bad faith, it is not surprising why a woman with so much to lose had opted to avoid any discomfort around the word ‘colored’. That word has a long history in the United States, where the scars of segregation are still deeply felt.
For all y’all bad faithers out there, understand that Tyla identifies as colored because she is “mixed with black/Zulu, irish, Mauritian/Indian” heritage and that term is a common one in South Africa, where she’s from. Ever notice how explaining a point to haters feels like explaining to preschoolers why their fight is stupid? Now that that’s cleared up, know it is a herculean task to get a hater on Twitter (X if you’re nasty!) to admit they’re wrong, and get ready to feel zero catharsis if they do.
I’m always happy to chat etymology, but perhaps with words that aren’t so loaded with history. Like, why is it called ‘take a shit’? You don’t ‘take’ a shit like you're planning to make it yours, you expel it from your body! Was there a secret cult of shit-takers perpetually stealing everyone’s butt babies? It could be argued that the taking in question is the time you take to shit, but something definitely got lost in translation if that’s the case. I’ve also heard British people say it like ‘have a shit’, which is somehow grosser. Yes, you may have a shit… hopefully you'll not have it for much longer so we can stop talking about it, and hopefully you make it to the bathroom in ‘loo’ of the alternative.
This shitty tangent was brought to you by ‘OfficiallyDoneWithTwitterNonsense.me.’
Oh Right, This Article Is About Tyla
Tyla is slated to be a pop music icon, but she is also poised to be something of a confidence icon along the lines of Ariana Grande or Beyonce. Take a look (or 'have a look', if you're nas- I'll stop) at what she’s most proud of: “My word, there’s a lot, but I think definitely my perseverance and my hunger to keep going. There have been a lot of moments where I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere and I felt like this wasn’t going to happen for me, but I kept going because of faith and my belief in myself.” If nothing this article has turned you on to Tyla, this might: ‘Water’ is the first winner of the African Music Performance Grammy.
Only a limited amount of ink need be spilled to discuss Tyla's most recent drama. After the MTV VMAs awarded her the Moon Person Award, she admitted "You guys know me and holding awards. I am not strong enough” and so she decided to hand it off to someone. The two someones at hand were Little Mermaid Halle Bailey and famed urban cowboy Lil Nas X, so she handed the award to the latter, which must automatically mean that Tyla hates Halle Bailey's guts and Halle Bailey is currently scouring Craigslist for a witch that can hex Tyla's career. Why and how any drama would arise from the decrepit industry farce known as the MTV Video Music Awards is beyond me, but as is the case with most online dramas, the amount of online discourse the drama generates is inversely proportional with its real-world stakes and so Google's first page results will be flooded with speculation about an imaginary snub at an irrelevant awards show between two women with nothing but love for each other.
It is a little disheartening to see all the shots Tyla has taken in the past year alone, but the young artist strides forth with her phenomenal energy and a wholesome love for her genre and the other artists in it. In Ms. Madden’s words, Tyla and her amapiano peers “represent a Pan-African musical takeover for a new generation”, setting out with the objective of making the whole world sway to gorgeous mid-tempo music about the finer things in life: rhythmic dancing, parties that are bumpin’, fun/healthy sex, and clothing that's been through the shredder.
Unless you like starting Twitter wars and pitting women against each other for no good reason, this does not seem like such a bad proposal!
Written by Lucas Beverley, @americanskald on Instagram.
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Sources:
Juliana Ukiomogbe. “Tyla on ‘Water’, Tems, and Her Debut Album.” Elle, 2 May 2024, https://www.elle.com/culture/music/a60539411/tyla-interview-2024/.
Lior Phillips. “‘It’s Sunny, with Music Bumping, and Everyone in Ripped Clothing’: How Tyla Set a New Pop Mood.” The Guardian, 25 Mar. 2024. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/25/its-sunny-with-music-bumping-and-everyone-in-ripped-clothing-how-tyla-set-a-new-pop-mood.
Malesky, Kee. “The Journey From ‘Colored’ To ‘Minorities’ To ‘People Of Color.’” NPR, 30 Mar. 2014. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/03/30/295931070/the-journey-from-colored-to-minorities-to-people-of-color.
Rachel McRady. “2024 MTV VMAs: Tyla and Halle Bailey Address Viral Onstage Moment.” E! Online, 12 Sept. 2024, https://www.eonline.com/news/1407217/2024-mtv-vmas-tyla-and-halle-bailey-address-viral-onstage-moment.
Rachel Savage. “Why Tyla’s Racial Identity Has Rallied South Africans behind Coloured Communities.” The Guardian, 10 Aug. 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/10/tyla-racial-identity-south-africans-coloured.
Sidney Madden. “Tyla Is the New Face of African Pop. She’s Aiming to Take over the Whole World.” NPR, 28 Mar. 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1241343666/tyla-interview-water.
Tyla - Getting Late (Official Video) Ft. Kooldrink. Directed by Topshotta, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Tct3AAre0.
Tyla Gets Ready for Her First Met Gala | Allure. Directed by Natalie Campbell, Allure, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRVYZiQKbyA.
Tyla Speaks On Breaking In America, Dance Inspiration, Kai Cenat + More. Directed by Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM, 2024. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDZufXTXnU.
Awesome Post! Tyla is an amazing artist, and I am glad you got to write about her amazing talents.