Interview with the singer behind Hit Water

Young singer Tyla has already been awarded a Grammy Award

like the phenomenal success of Rihanna As demonstrated, you can come from a place far away from the American star system and become one of the biggest stars in the world. An example and a great inspiration for young singers from Johannesburg Tyla, 22 years old. It was she who also provided the opening act for the star’s ex-boyfriend in 2023, Chris Brown, Since my first single, It is getting late, Released in 2019, its shine continues to grow day by day, accumulating billions of streams. In the middle of a concert for the Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Milan, a song, overdue (2021), appearing in the series’ soundtrack Netflix blood and water, A signature on a major label (Epic Records) and a photo posted by them Kim Kardashian On her Instagram account, Tyla is one of pop’s rising stars.

Things got intense when she left the tube Water (2023), which has 146 million views on YouTube and sparked a challenge on TikTok. Since then he started being followed on Instagram Rosaliaheard by cardi b in an instagram story and remixed by travis scott, Other feats of arms? Barack Obama playlisted one of her songs and Tyla received the award for Best African Music Performance at the 66th edition. Grammy Awards On 4th February. She is also the youngest African artiste to win a Grammy.

Even though injury forced her to cancel her tour (and her appearance at Coachella), her rise isn’t over. This Friday, March 22, Tyla will release her debut album, which also bears her own name. there we will find the irresistible Water But the title is equally attractiveAnd so on Or truth or Dare Or butterflies Also collaborating with Thames, Gunna, Becky G And Travis Scott.

Tyla’s debut in the music industry

It only needed a handful of singles (It is getting lateoverdue, was thinkingEnd) and some lively dance steps TIC Toc So that everyone’s eyes remain focused on Tyla’s beautiful face and her sensual tone. However, he had never had such success before, as he told us during a meeting in Paris. ,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 she’s had to try every job in the world. He is very creative. She makes jewelry, candles… I’m very close to my brothers and sisters, who were born a year apart from each other. My parents were very strict, so we were often locked in the house, and so we were forced to become best friends.,

As she tells us about her vibrant childhood, we almost see a picture taking shape, full of shimmering colours, crying and laughter. ,We used to make a lot of noise with my brothers and sisters, She continues. We were allowed to go to the local store with our cousins ​​from time to time. Sometimes my mother would also ask us to help her sell old clothes. We would randomly pick a corner of the road, spread a blanket on the ground and encourage people to buy it from us. We also went to the place where taxis used to stop to sell thick cake, also called magwinya, African pastries. we were actually my mom’s salesman (laughing). We weren’t rich, but I loved my childhood!,

Tyla, following 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 instrumentals of famous songs she found on YouTube, making up lyrics about boys she thought were cute. Believing in her lucky star, when she was in high school, she mustered up the courage one day to post on Instagram and send private messages to stars like. Rihanna, Fly And DJ Khaled. If no one responds to him, but the one who is still his manager notices him that way, then the fairy tale begins. Every weekend, the singer records music in the studio with her best friend, with whom she hangs out in between.

If the parents of Tyla listened to a lot of music at home, including Michael Jackson, they were not convinced that a career as an artist was a good idea for their daughter, fearing that, like many of their loved ones, the dream would end. Before Tayla’s passion took over her, she was thinking about studying mining engineering. ,I always felt like I was meant to be an artist. When I was growing up, singing and writing song lyrics were the only things I was interested in. My first song was about a boy, my crush in school. It’s always about a boy… It really wasn’t very good. No one ever listened to him. I even tore a page of my diary so that no one could find it.,

An excellent 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 pictures.,

Tyla, amapiano and rising star of R’n’B

Her extremely sexy videos – garnering millions of views – and her silky voice, in line with the great R’n’B stars of the 2000s, from Aaliyah to Ciara, are not the only explanations for the craze she has sparked. Tyla, In this, their attachment to their roots also matters a lot. According to influential media pitchfork, He’s there”princess of amapiano”, a hypnotic South African musical style. In fact the artist mixes pop and R’n’B with amapiano. He even invented a name to define his music: “Popiano, l’amapiano is a musical genre that is a blend of deep house, jazz, lounge sounds and gospel soul. His pieces, created using cheap DIY software, relate to streets, townships and sweaty clubs. The word comes from the Zulu word meaning “piano”, and its melodious and slow tempo plunges listeners into a kind of trance, inviting hips to shake and come together on the dance floor. Like its Nigerian cousin Afrobeats, this music described as “post-apartheid”, born in 2012, is now setting the planet on fire.

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

If artists like jorja smith And as Major Lazer alludes to in his songs, Amapiano tells the story of his native country above all. Much of this is attributable to kwaito, another house-derived music genre that emerged in post-apartheid Soweto in the 1990s, when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected black president. kwaito Is the soundtrack of the people. Music that reflects a new freedom of expression and a new energy. ,Amapiano is a genre that is truly unique to South Africa, Tyla explains. Here, we hear a lot of House, Jazz, Kwaito and Amapiano which come from these genres. We recognize the Amapiano because of its very powerful percussive bass lines and ‘log drums’, warm sounding wooden drums reproduced ‘electronically’ through software. These are the sounds that everyone loves in my country, which we hear everywhere: on the street, in shops, on public transport. But the masters of the game are the DJs, like DJ Maphorisa, who create and play music in clubs. All Amapiano artists like singer Sha Sha or rapper Nasty C form one big family. We all know each other and play in the same club.,

The global hype over amapiano, which has infiltrated the trendy clubs of Paris since Covid, doesn’t offend anyone. Tyla, ,I’m glad this genre is traveling today and finding success elsewhere, because we know this music and have been dancing to it for many years. As long as the artists who don’t come from South Africa and who monopolize it know where it comes from, then it’s fine by me.,

Tyla explodes with solo water

The artist also emphasizes his pride in representing South African sounds abroad. ,Because I’m 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, Beyoncé, Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight and it influences me. But I wanted to add my ‘African touch’ and incorporate Amapiano and Afrobeats sounds into my tunes.,

In her clip, Tyla I also want to pay tribute to his background. ,I wanted to shoot a video for my song was thinking In my country so that we can get the authentic dance movement from here. Because people who are not from South Africa can learn these activities, but the vibration will be different.,

especially thanks to its tubes Water, Tyla She has already achieved many of her dreams, even if she fantasizes about a duet with an R’n’B star Doja Cat, He met the leading singers His, And sza, and was able to travel outside his country. Facing us, he has stars in his eyes, he can’t believe he’s in Paris. However, he will have to get used to it, because the rising star, who is preparing his first album, is far from reaching his peak.

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