South African singer Tyla’s “Water” was a global sensation, catapulting her to star status.
Since then, she’s snagged a Grammy, two BET Awards, and on Wednesday, she added MTV Video Music Award for Best Afrobeats to the list. While she was proud of helping bring African music to the masses, she described the win as “bittersweet.”
The singer accepted her moonperson when she shared how much representing Africa and African music means to her and what the success of “Water” means for the genre.
“The global impact that ‘Water’ has had on the world just proves that African music can be pop music too,” she began her acceptance speech.
She also addressed award shows’ unfortunate habit of grouping African artists under an Afrobeats category almost exclusively.
“This is just so special, but also bittersweet because I know there’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats,” she added. “It’s a thing, and 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.”
The “Truth or Dare” vocalist explained she makes amapiano music, a South African genre that incorporates house, jazz and the country’s kwaito genre.
“I come from South Africa. I represent amapiano, I represent my culture,” she said, later shouting out her fellow amapiano artists nominated in the category. “Africa to the world.”
Up against Tyla in the Best Afrobeats category were Ayra Starr featuring Giveon for “Last Heartbreak Song,” Burna Boy for “City Boys,” Chris Brown featuring Davido and Lojay for “Sensational,” Tems for “Love Me JeJe” and Usher for “Pheelz.”
It was the 22-year-old’s first VMA nomination and win. She was also nominated for the Best New Artist award but lost to Chappell Roan. Tyla’s “Water” was also nominated for Best R&B. SZA’s “Snooze” claimed that.
Check out Tyla’s VMA acceptance speech below.
