‘Water’ Singer Vows There’s ‘No Way to Stop Me’ After Global Hit

When South African singer-songwriter Tyla turned 22 years previous in late January, she was on prime of the world — actually.

Her label, Epic Information, invited a number of hundred music executives, artists and followers to Harriet’s Rooftop in West Hollywood, Calif., for her birthday bash. The get together was a twin celebration: Tyla had additionally not too long ago scored her first Grammy Award nomination, for finest African music efficiency — considered one of three new classes the Recording Academy launched this 12 months — along with her 2023 breakthrough hit, “Water.”

Waiters shocked Tyla — who had remodeled a nook of the rooftop bar into her personal non-public VIP part, full with glam pictures of herself adorning the partitions — with a glittery sheet cake. Epic chairwoman/CEO Sylvia Rhone and president Ezekiel Lewis offered her with three plaques commemorating the success of “Water”: gold and platinum certifications in over 18 nations (together with america and South Africa); surpassing 1 billion views on TikTok; and reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats Songs, Rhythmic Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts.

Then, 5 nights later, Tyla bought one of the best belated birthday current of all: her first Grammy, the inaugural win in its class, which Jimmy Jam offered to her throughout the awards present’s premiere ceremony. “I used to be in such shock,” Tyla recollects on an early March afternoon. “It’s one thing that lots of people attempt towards and wish to win no less than as soon as of their lifetime. And I’m so blessed to have acquired one so early in my profession.”

However for an artist reflecting on such a joyous second, Tyla sounds a bit blue talking to me about her Grammy win at the moment — and understandably so. Simply six hours earlier than our chat, she had posted a letter on Instagram saying the form of information no younger artist needs to disclose: On account of “an damage that’s tragically worsened,” she can be delaying her first headlining North American and European tour and dropping out of a handful of festivals, together with Coachella. “It’s troublesome as a result of I wish to go. It’s the second that I’ve been ready for,” she tells me. “It’s not a simple resolution, nevertheless it’s the precise resolution.”

4 days later at her Billboard cowl shoot, Tyla maintains a degree of poise that means nothing’s flawed. She gamely performs the a part of the glamorous burgeoning pop star, in a fur-print puffer jacket, bra prime and mismatched gold hoops that complement the edginess of her eyebrow slit.

That is, in spite of everything, a job Tyla has ready for her entire life. Her co-manager, Colin Gayle, clearly remembers his first assembly along with her: “I used to be like, ‘What do you wish to do?’ She mentioned, ‘I wish to be Africa’s first pop star.’ ” Gayle, who can also be co-founder and CEO of Africa Artistic Company, had not too long ago moved to South Africa when Brandon Hixon — the New York-based co-founder of FAX Information who began managing Tyla in 2018 after discovering her on Instagram — reached out to see if he would meet with Tyla and think about turning into her on-the-ground help. By 2020, Gayle had joined her administration crew.

As a brand new technology of younger African ladies has damaged into mainstream pop music over the previous few years (together with Beninese Nigerian singer Ayra Starr, whom Tyla collaborated with on “Woman Subsequent Door,” and fellow South African DJ Uncle Waffles, whom she carried out with in September in New York), Tyla has emerged with a novel mix of sounds dubbed “popiano” — a hybrid of pop, R&B and Afrobeats with the shakers, rattling log drums and soulful piano melodies of amapiano. It actually popped when she launched “Water,” a summer season anthem with a sweltering pop/R&B hook (and a refined sensuality recalling Aaliyah’s “Rock the Boat”) that floats over effervescent log drums.

“Water” opened the floodgates to the worldwide recognition of Tyla’s desires. The music debuted at No. 67 on the Billboard Scorching 100 in October and by January had reached a No. 7 peak. Its viral TikTok dance helped catapult the observe onto radio, and Travis Scott and Marshmello eagerly hopped on its remixes. “Water” hit No. 1 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs in October, ending the file 58-week reign of Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down,” and it has now spent 24 weeks (and counting) atop the chart. Tyla’s catalog has earned 283.7 million official on-demand U.S. streams, in keeping with Luminate — and “Water” is accountable for 236.7 million of them.

On the morning of Nov. 10, 2023, Tyla’s Epic crew informed her to tune in to the Grammy nominations livestream from her lodge room in New York. “I didn’t even know the label submitted some songs,” she recollects. “Once I noticed my title, I used to be like, ‘There’s no method.’ My finest good friend was leaping within the room with me. I nonetheless have the video, and I’m carrying this bodysuit that’s half open. It’s a busy video, nevertheless it showcases the joy in that second.”

This 12 months’s finest African music efficiency nominees had been predominantly Nigerian artists — Burna Boy (“Metropolis Boys”), Davido (“Unavailable”), Asake and Olamide (“Amapiano”) and Starr (“Rush”). Tyla and Musa Keys (who’s featured on Davido’s “Unavailable”) had been the one South African acts. Contemplating the numerous inroads Afrobeats has made within the American music market over the past decade, Tyla’s win with an amapiano music wasn’t essentially doubtless.

“That class is one thing that was launched in my lifetime, and I used to be the primary individual to win it. And I’m in a position to deliver it residence again to South Africa,” Tyla marvels now, including that her father has already claimed the trophy to be displayed in his examine, together with the remainder of her award {hardware}. “The South African style of amapiano simply began effervescent, and I’m so proud that South Africa has a style that individuals are having fun with and being attentive to. I’m tremendous pleased with my nation and the place our sound has gone.”

That sound is only one aspect of how Tyla represents her residence nation in her craft, generally in ways in which the typical non-South African shopper would possibly miss. For a late-2023 efficiency on The Voice, she remodeled the stage right into a shebeen, an “unlicensed, underground area for ingesting and music” the place Black South Africans may collect and “communicate freely in protest” throughout apartheid, in keeping with Lior Phillips, creator of South African Well-liked Music (Style: A 33 1/3 Collection). And on the very finish of the repeated prechorus of “Water,” Tyla softly exhales “haibo,” a Zulu expression of shock or disbelief. “It’s much like ‘Yo!’ the place you need to use it a number of methods,” she explains. “In that [song], I form of use it in a sassy method.”

However when she carried out “Water” throughout her debut U.S. TV efficiency on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon in late October, Tyla changed it with one other South African expression: “Asambe!”

“ ‘Asambe’ in South Africa means ‘Let’s go!’ And she or he screamed it on the mic. That was pivotal,” recollects her choreographer, Lee-ché Janecke. “It felt awkward at first after we had been rehearsing it as a result of we had been like, ‘Are we actually going to do that on nationwide tv in America? Um, yeah, we’re!’ As a lot because it’s one phrase, it meant probably the most to South Africa.”

Rising up within the “very vigorous” metropolis of Johannesburg, Tyla Laura Seethal was at all times the focal point. “Even earlier than I may keep in mind, my mom would inform me tales about how after I was small, I’d at all times wish to sing for folks,” Tyla recollects. “I’d pose for folks simply so that they [could] take photos of me. And I danced for everybody.”

Her dad and mom uncovered her to American R&B icons like Stevie Marvel, Brian McKnight, Aaliyah and Whitney Houston; South African pop and home acts like Freshlyground, Mi Casa and Liquideep; and Nigerian Afrobeats superstars like Wizkid, Burna Boy and Davido. When Tyla was 11, she began importing movies of herself singing covers to YouTube and Instagram, from Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes” to Boyz II Males’s model of “Let It Snow,” and DM’ing them to superstars like Drake and DJ Khaled.

Whereas her numerous reachouts went unanswered, her Instagram covers caught the eye of Garth von Glehn, a Zimbabwean director and photographer primarily based between Cape City and New York. When he first emailed her, Tyla frightened it was a rip-off — however after a number of weeks, she agreed to fulfill von Glehn along with her dad and mom.

Finally, Tyla spent each weekend of her remaining 12 months of highschool at his studio loft, writing and recording music, taking pictures music movies and conducting picture shoots along with her finest good friend Thato Nzimande. Von Glehn’s loft was “a artistic artist hub,” says Janecke, who labored on music video units with von Glehn and was tapped by him to assist prepare a few of the in-house artists throughout their early improvement interval. A kind of artists was Tyla.

“She simply had this factor in her eyes that she needs this!” Janecke exclaims. “And wanting it makes me really feel like, ‘OK, I’m going to push extra with this individual.’ If you happen to’re hungry, and that starvation by no means stops, that’s my woman. And she or he has been that woman since that time.”

Tyla’s dad and mom, nonetheless, remained skeptical that the trail of an artist was the precise one for her — so, to appease them, she utilized to college to check mining engineering, a subject she picked solely as a result of “it was the job that was going to offer me probably the most cash.” However after “quite a lot of convincing and quite a lot of crying,” her dad and mom allowed her a trial hole 12 months after she graduated from highschool in 2019 so she may show {that a} full-time music profession would pan out.

Working with Kooldrink, a producer residing in von Glehn’s home, Tyla began “to experiment and discover out the sound that I wished to have.” On the time, amapiano was taking on South African dancefloors and radio stations alike. That means “the pianos” in Zulu, amapiano originated within the South African townships within the mid-2010s as a hybrid of deep home, jazz and kwaito music and was popularized by Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa, amongst others.

After first listening to amapiano in highschool, when a classmate performed her Kwiish SA’s “Iskhathi (Gong Gong),” Tyla wished to place her personal spin on the style. “Amapiano songs had been like eight minutes, 10 minutes at the moment,” Tyla informed Billboard in October, when she was honored as R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month. “And I used to be like, ‘Oh, that’s a bit too lengthy! Let me make an amapiano music that has the traditional format of a pop music or an R&B music.” She experimented with that method on her scintillating debut single, “Getting Late,” that includes Kooldrink. However after taking pictures one scene for the video firstly of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic broke out and manufacturing shut down. With only one 12 months to show herself to her dad and mom, Tyla feared she had run out of time.

“Even when it solely will get 270 views on YouTube and my profession fails, I’ll simply watch this video on repeat for the remainder of my life and I’m fairly positive I’ll be joyful,” Tyla posted on Instagram days earlier than the “Getting Late” video finally premiered in January 2021. The result quashed all of her earlier issues: The clip, which has since garnered greater than 9 million YouTube views, earned a music video of the 12 months nomination on the 2022 South African Music Awards, and FAX Information’ Hixon despatched it to Epic’s Rhone and Lewis.

“This may very well be the car to take Africa to the world in a method that it has by no means been exported earlier than,” Lewis recollects considering. The “Getting Late” video began a label bidding battle, however because of Hixon’s established enterprise relationship with Lewis and Rhone — and with slightly assist from a number of “Love, Sylvia Rhone from Epic” billboards with Tyla’s face on them positioned round Johannesburg — Tyla selected Epic.

“It was a really aggressive signing. We wished one thing genuine, honest and private — particularly since we’re 10,000-plus miles away,” Rhone says of her tactic. “That’s what sealed the deal.”

Tyla can nonetheless image the primary time she left South Africa, in 2021. “I keep in mind wanting outdoors of the airplane and crying,” she says, “and being like, ‘What the heck is that this?!’”

She was en path to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the place Epic had assembled numerous American, European and African songwriters and producers, together with three-time Grammy winner (and former Epic president of A&R) Tough Stewart, and put them in a writing camp only for her. “On the time, we couldn’t get the sources and the folks [to South Africa] to make it occur,” Lewis explains. “So I discovered randomly by wanting on the map that Dubai can be a spot that may host us all. That’s a really costly proposition, a really bold type of enterprise, however she was price it.”

For the following two-and-a-half years, Epic’s improvement of Tyla turned a really world endeavor, taking her and a rotating group of hit-makers to Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Jamaica, the UK, america and past to put in writing and file her self-titled debut album. The classes helped Tyla acquire extra formal studio recording expertise, whereas additionally establishing her “Improbable 4” crew of artistic collaborators: Ari PenSmith, Mocha Bands, Believve and Sammy SoSo, who all contributed to “Water,” the “summer season banger” that Tyla felt had been lacking from her album. In line with the challenge’s worldwide genesis, the music was “produced in London, then completed in LA, written and vocal demo executed in ATL then recorded in Cape City,” as SoSo wrote on Instagram.

“I used to be really driving in Portland [Ore.] with my household and I began listening to [“Water”] on my cellphone. I actually stopped the automotive and pulled over,” Hixon recollects of his preliminary response. “My spouse and my children had been like, ‘What’s happening?’ And I used to be like, ‘Yo, this sh-t is loopy!’ ”

Tyla and her crew immediately knew “Water” was going to be huge, and he or she wished to discover a option to make it even larger. One evening at round 10:30 p.m., a number of days earlier than the music dropped, Tyla known as Janecke and Nzimande to brainstorm choreography concepts. She had at all times beloved the Pretoria-based Bacardi fashion of dancing — which synchronizes booty shaking and complex footwork with a music’s fast-paced rhythm — and had included it into a distinct music from her stay units that at all times generated a loopy crowd response. Tyla requested Janecke if he may create a Bacardi-inspired dance for “Water,” and inside an hour, he drafted a TikTok video of his unique routine and despatched it to her. “She goes, ‘Publish! Publish this proper now!’ ” he recollects excitedly. “She was going loopy over this pocket of fingers up, fingers down, throw it to the facet, growth. Booty on log drum! Throw it to the opposite facet. Booty on log drum!”

When she carried out the dance for the primary time on the self-proclaimed world’s largest Afrobeats competition, Afro Nation Portugal, in July, Janecke had Tyla’s backup dancers pour water bottles on her. A month later, whereas rehearsing for her Giants of Africa competition set in Rwanda, she prompt merely pouring the water bottle on herself — a choreography tweak that proved to be social media gold. One competition attendee posted a video of the revised “Water” routine on her Instagram Story and Tyla requested for the footage, reposting to her personal account shortly earlier than jetting again to South Africa. When she landed nearly 4 hours later, the video had amassed greater than 5 million views. (It now has over 21 million.)

Tyla’s pure dance capability — and her instincts for the form of efficiency that may most resonate on the web — continued to attract in followers as she started acting on TV, appearances that, co-manager Gayle says, “cemented her as an artist.” However conserving her viewers engaged and rising required multiple hit single. The Tyla EP arrived in early December, with “Water,” its Scott remix and three new songs — supposed, Lewis explains, to offer followers “a style of different layers of the artist in order that it turns into larger than a observe proposition and turns into an artist proposition.”

The mini challenge additionally launched a playful new focus observe, “Fact or Dare,” which got here with its personal viral TikTok choreography. “Fact or Dare” and one other EP observe, the Nineties R&B-inspired “On and On,” turned two extra prime 10 hits on the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart for Tyla, peaking at Nos. 3 and 10, respectively, and “Fact or Dare” has been steadily climbing at radio, reaching No. 22 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and No. 24 on Rhythmic Airplay.

The momentum of her different songs completely set the stage for the March 22 launch of Tyla’s self-titled debut. It’s bittersweet that she will be able to’t advertise stay — but — in the best way she has proved to be so expert, and for the second, neither Tyla nor her label will reveal something extra about her damage. So for now, the music should communicate for itself.

Over 14 tracks, Tyla polishes her popiano sound, discovering the candy spot between African and American music with R&B melodies, amapiano manufacturing and beautiful pop writing. “We traveled the world to make this file, and that’s why the world is mirrored on this file,” Lewis says. Mexican American star Becky G joins her for the graceful, Afrobeats-meets-Latin dancefloor quantity “On My Physique”; rapper Gunna and Jamaican dancehall artist Skillibeng assist coax out her extra braggadocious facet on “Bounce”; and Tyla brings different stars from her residence continent alongside for the experience, mixing fantastically with Nigerian singer-songwriter-producer Tems on “No. 1” and cooing over South African DJ-producer Kelvin Momo’s slow-burning amapiano manufacturing on “Intro.” “I had this voice be aware on my cellphone of the music enjoying and folks speaking within the again. I keep in mind loving the slang that we had been utilizing and simply the sound of a South African studio session,” Tyla says. “I knew I wished that for my intro.”

And whereas her followers should wait to see her stay (in her Instagram be aware, Tyla mentioned she hoped to be “able to return safely onstage this summer season”), they’ll nonetheless see the form of performer Tyla is in her Hole Spring 2024 Linen Strikes marketing campaign, which reimagines Jungle’s viral “Again on 74” music video. She needs to maintain branching out into trend, too, or maybe dabble in make-up and performing. “Individuals are going to see me in every single place,” she guarantees. “So for those who don’t like me, I’m sorry.”

Tyla dreamed for years of turning into Africa’s first pop star — and he or she isn’t about to let one setback cease her. “I’m actually assured in what I’ve created. Now’s a time the place I can showcase a efficiency fashion the place I’m not likely dancing as a lot. Perhaps I strip again slightly bit extra and I’m simply serving vocals,” she muses. “However there’s no option to cease me. I’m at all times going to discover a method.”

This story will seem within the March 30, 2024, difficulty of Billboard.