The right beat can make all the difference in the world. It did for South African singer, songwriter, and emerging global popstar Tyla, who in 2019 began working with a Johannesburg producer called Kooldrink. Tyla would visit his studio every weekend during her final year of high school, and they would record trap, pop, and R&B songs. They were experimenting, and a lot of it sounded pretty good.
Then one day, Tyla and Kooldrink decided to try amapiano, the hypnotic South African club sound that combines elements of house, jazz, hip-hop, and soul. Tyla was and is a big fan of the genre, and her voice fit naturally atop Kooldrink’s insistent shakers and rolling electronic log drums. The result was the lush, sensual “Getting Late,” classic amapiano with Western pop sheen.
“Instantly, we were just vibing so much,” Tyla tells Genius. “We were like, ‘This is the song we’re going to release first.’ It just felt right.”
“Getting Late” arrived in 2019 and caught fire the following year, during the pandemic, when Tyla released the music video. Self-financed and filmed amid covid restrictions, the “Getting Late” clip features a joyous and magnetic Tyla dancing with friends at a slumber party and melting hearts as head cheerleader. The video racked up millions of views, prompting a major label bidding war that ended with Tyla signing with Epic Records.
The 21-year-old is now jetting around the world, chilling with celebs, and finishing up her debut album. Earlier this year, she teased the project with the single “Been Thinking,” a club jam co-written and co-produced by none other than Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, the mastermind behind all-timers like Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.” Last week, Tyla returned with “Girl Next Door,” a collaboration with Afrobeats riser Ayra Starr.
All of this represents the realization of a showbiz dream Tyla’s had since childhood. She grew up in a music-loving family, and every weekend, when it was time to clean the house, her mother would wake Tyla and her siblings by blasting American R&B and hip-hop. If Tevin Campbell or 2Pac was on, it meant you had to get to scrubbing. Fortunately, that association didn’t sour Tyla to Western music. She developed a passion for the stuff, as her music now attests.
Tyla also loved singing and dancing, and somewhere along the way, she began writing songs in a notebook she got from her mother. “Ever since I was young, even before I knew what it could actually become, I just generally enjoyed writing and singing and living that pop-star fantasy,” Tyla says.
Most of her early compositions were about crushes on classmates and the usual teen stuff. But Tyla remembers at least one song that was “low-key deep.” It had to do with the uneasiness she sometimes felt attending her predominantly white school.
“The girls used to be like, ‘Oh, why is your hair so big?’” Tyla remembers. “And I always used to straighten my hair. So I remember I wrote this song about self-image. I was so young, and it was probably not that good.”
Tyla hasn’t tackled anything quite so weighty in her professional career, which began when she found a manager by posting cover songs online. But the songs she’s written are thoughtful, nuanced, and reflective of a young woman finding her way in the world. Take “Getting Late,” her breakthrough, where she repeatedly urges the man in her life to show some patience. Ostensibly, she’s running late for a date, but there’s more to the story.
“I wanted the song to be fun, because all girls can relate—when we’re getting ready, we will make everyone and anyone wait,” Tyla says. “But also, I also wanted to play with [the idea] that guys should wait for something they really want. Not only for [a girl] getting ready, but also for a woman to be ready, maybe, for a relationship. It’s like, ‘Relax—I’m going to take my time, and it will be worth it in the end.’”
Tyla takes the opposite tact on her 2021 sophomore single, the breathy and urgent “Overdue,” an example of the energetic South African club sound known as gqom. On that song, which was featured on the soundtrack for the South African teen Netflix drama Blood & Water, Tyla tells her crush she’s ready for him to make a move. She’s once again controlling the timeline, moving at her own pace.
On 2022’s “To Last,” a return to the poppy amapiano off her debut, Tyla sings about a relationship that was doomed to fail: “You never gave us a chance/It’s like you never wanted to last.” Tyla wasn’t actually going through a breakup at the time, but she had a good friend who was. That inspired the lyrics—some of which came to Tyla in the shower.
“Although I have not been in relationships, I was giving, I think, good advice,” Tyla says. “She was going through something where she felt like her partner wasn’t really trying for the relationship, like the partner was OK with losing her. That is something everyone can relate to, even if it’s not in terms of a relationship. Even friendships or family or anything—in any type of relationship, you never want to feel disposable, or like someone is OK with losing you.”
Next came “Been Thinking,” the irresistible Tricky Stewart thumper that’s surpassed a million Spotify plays and 1.5 million YouTube views. Tyla first met the hitmaker during a covid-era writing camp in Dubai, where they recorded some songs. They later reconnected during Tyla’s first trip to America. Stewart heard she was going to be in L.A., so he came through with co-writer Theron Thomas—co-author of Rihanna’s “Man Down” and Beyonce’s “All Night,” among many others—and a bunch of beats, one of which became “Been Thinking.”
“We made it all together that one night,” Tyla says. “We were jamming to it the whole night. I have videos of [Stewart] adding things and all of us just vibing. It was such a good session. The song was amazing. The label heard it and instantly they were like, ‘You need to go and shoot a music video. We are releasing this song.’”
The label wanted Tyla to film the video in L.A., but Tyla insisted on flying back to South Africa. And for good reason.
“I really wanted to show my culture and have people from home involved in dancing,” she says. “The vibe is very different at home. You can always teach people the dance moves, but it’s different. You have to have that authentic flavor.”
Tyla is tight-lipped about the forthcoming album, due out sometime this summer. There’s a working title, but she won’t reveal it, as it’s subject to change. She also can’t say what producers are involved, though she confirms that she and will.i.am made some songs in Dubai. Nevertheless, it seems likely the LP will contain more of the transcontinental dance-pop hybridizations that represent Tyla’s musical upbringing.
“There’s gonna be different sounds, but it’s gonna be cohesive, in a way,” she says. “I’m playing a lot with R&B and pop, but then also with the African influence when it comes to the beat or certain elements of the beat. I really love it, and I feel like it’s something so fresh and new. I’m excited to see how people receive it, because I’m really confident about it.”
She’s similarly ready to be the face of South African music on the world stage, even if that comes with its share of pressure.
“You have to think about everybody at home, just making sure that you representing well,” she says. “People will have expectations … But I’m so excited and happy because I have such a huge level of pride for my home, for Africa, for South Africa. I’m so happy and blessed to have this opportunity, sharing the music and the culture, the dance moves, my accent, everything.”
