Tyla

Born Tyla Laura Seethal on 30 January 2002 in Johannesburg, the South African singer and songwriter known professionally as Tyla is a viral success story whose rapid rise to fame came about following the popularity of her debut amapiano-flavoured single "Getting Late" featuring Kooldrink. After re-directing her path from mining engineering to music, she immediately set to work on her career, sharing cover songs on social media that caught the attention of her first manager Garth von Glehn. "Getting Late" arrived in 2019, with a video following in January 2021 and receiving the nomination for Music Video of the Year at the 28th South African Music Awards in 2022. This led to a record deal with Epic and follow-up singles "To Last" and "Overdue," which featured South African gqom pioneer DJ Lag and Kooldrink and appeared on the soundtrack for Netflix's South African teen drama Blood & Water: Season 2. Her reputation was given a boost in 2023, first thanks to the Ayra Starr-featuring single "Girl Next Door," which reached number 39 on the US Afrobeats Songs chart, and then thanks to the international breakout single "Water," which cracked the top ten hit in a string of countries around the world, including the UK and Australia. Significantly, it also became the first song by a South African soloist to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 in 55 years. In 2023, she was named Best Female Artist at the African Entertainment Awards USA and that same year, "Water" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance. Also in 2023, she was also nominated for the Best New Artist gong at the Soul Train Music Awards as well as receiving two South African Music Award nominations. Tyla's eagerly awaited self-titled debut album surfaced in 2024 and mixed her signature amapiano with pop and R&B. The LP was a critical and commercial success, cracking the US Billboard 200 at number 24 and reaching the top 20 in the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, and Switzerland.