On Tuesday, 21-year-old Tyla, the rising star of South Africa’s Amapiano phenomenon, made a remarkable entry into the Billboard Hot 100, the benchmark US music chart of the most listened-to tracks each week, with her now-viral hit “Water”.
“Tyla makes her first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with +Water+, the single that gave the South African singer-songwriter her breakthrough, ranked at number 67,” announced US magazine Billboard on its website.
A singer, dancer, and performer, Tyla Laura Seethal has just a few singles to her credit, but music industry professionals are already describing her as one of the continent’s most promising talents.
Signed to Epic Records (Sony), this year she opened for American RnB singer Chris Brown on his European tour.
Her track “Water”, released in July, in the Amapiano vein born in the South African townships before becoming a global style, gained popularity in just a few weeks, notably on TikTok, thanks to a video of the artist dancing seen over 70 million times.
The official video, which uses RnB codes, has already racked up over eleven million views on YouTube. And the track has surpassed on Spotify the number of monthly listens to the global hit “Jerusalemema”, concocted by South Africa’s Master KG.
“I’m a South African born and bred in Johannesburg. It’s crazy,” she reacted on X (ex-Twitter) after her Billboard entry. “Let’s make our sound heard all over the world”, enjoined the artist, who is preparing her debut album, hailing “a victory for all of Africa”.
