Born
Johannesburg, South Africa, 30 January 2002
Genre invented
"Popiano" (pop meets amapiano)
Debut album streams
1.3 billion on Spotify
Grammy wins
2 (Best African Music Performance, 2024 and 2025)
"Water" Billboard peak
No. 7 Hot 100 (highest African female solo ever)
"Water" milestone
first African solo artist to 1 billion Spotify streams
A*POP release
July 24, 2026
A*POP drops July 24, 2026
African Pop Is Pop Music
Tyla Laura Seethal announced her sophomore album on February 1, 2026, standing on the red carpet at the 68th Grammy Awards, the same night she picked up her second consecutive Best African Music Performance trophy, this time for "Push 2 Start." The album title says exactly what she means: "I bring the A to pop. It's African pop; African music is pop music." A*POP is out July 24 via FAX and Epic Records.
"I hate being restricted. I hate following rules. For a long time I felt like I had to be something in order to be a pop star. A*POP is me saying: this is what pop sounds like.
"Tyla · on the meaning of A*POP
All 14 tracks on A*POP
Fairytales
That Girl
Mr. Nonchalant
Kiss
Is It Love (single, out June 19)
Is It
Hot Tubs
Feel Something
Double Blind
Right Now
I Don't Care
She Did It Again ft. Zara Larsson (single, out April 17)
Chanel (lead single, out October 2025, No. 15 UK)
Crazy of Me
How She Got Here: From Kigali to the Grammys
"Water" was released on July 28, 2023. The real spark came in August 2023 when Tyla performed it live at the Giants of Africa Festival in Kigali, Rwanda. A TikTok clip of that set went viral overnight, triggering the global #TylaWaterChallenge. Within weeks the track was climbing charts in countries Tyla had never performed in. It became the first solo song by a South African artist to enter the Hot 100 in 55 years, a record not broken since Hugh Masekela's "Grazing in the Grass" in 1968. By early 2024, "Water" had passed one billion Spotify streams, a first for any African solo act.
Tyla won the inaugural Grammy for Best African Music Performance in 2024, beating Burna Boy, Davido, and Ayra Starr. She won it again in 2025 for "Push 2 Start," making her the only artist to hold the award twice. The category was created specifically to recognise the global rise of African music.
The tracklist for A*POP was revealed on July 16, 2026, in a video where Tyla used fluorescent spray paint on a blacklight wall to write each title while "She Did It Again" played. The stunt has already been called one of the year's most creative album roll-out moments.