South African singer, Tyla has become the first African female artiste to win the Best Afrobeats Award at MTV VMAs 2024
Tyla won the award at Wednesday night’s ceremony at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. She made history as the first female African artist, as well as the first South African artist to win a VMA.
She emerged top in the Best Afrobeats category after overcoming stiff competition from Ayra Starr featuring Giveon; Burna Boy; Chris Brown featuring Davido and Lojay; Tems; and Usher with Pheelz with her song ‘Water.’
Tyla was also nominated for two other categories ‘Best New Artiste’ and ‘Best RnB’ but lost in both.
In her reaction, Tyla, said Afrobeats has opened a lot of doors for African music but it was wrong to categorise every music from the continent under the genre.
She explained that she is from South Africa and represents the Amapiano genre.
“Thank you. MTV, my team, God, everyone, this is such a big moment for Africa. African music, guys. The global impact that Water has had on the world proves African music can also be pop music.
“This is so special but also bittersweet. Because I know there’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats.
“Even though Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse. It’s more than just Afrobeats.
“I come from South Africa, I represent Amapiano. I present my culture. And I just want to shout out all the Afrobeats artists in this category with me. Shout out to all the Afrobeats artistes Tems, Ayra Starr, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Rema and
Tyla released her highly anticipated self-titled debut album, “Tyla” on March 22, 2023.
The album is supported by singles: “Water”, “On and On”, “Truth or Dare” and “Art”, in addition to the promotional single “Butterflies”and the 2022 stand-alone single “To Last”.
Tyla’s global hit single “Water”, opened the floodgates for her career, leading to a viral dance challenge, almost 500 million streams on Spotify so far and a Grammy win.
