The South African Artist has kicked against the way all African music are categorized as afrobeats by the Western World. The ‘water crooner’ expressed her dismay while accepting her award for the Best Afrobeats Song at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night.
The young singer insist that Afrobeats has opened a lot of doors for African music but it was wrong to categorise every music from the continent under the genre.
Tyla said she is from South Africa, and she represents Amapiano genre contrary to what the Western World claimed.
In her words, “The impact that ‘Water’ has had on the world proves that African music can be pop music, too. 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 to all the Afrobeats artists in this category with me. Shout out to all the Afrobeats artistes Tems, Ayra Starr, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Rema and Lojay.”