Tyla took the world by storm in 2023 with her Billboard Hot 100 hit “Water,” but she’s just getting started. The South African sensation has confirmed that a new album is on the way in 2025—and she promises a fresh sound while staying true to herself.
“I’ve changed a lot in a short amount of time because I was kind of forced to with how fast I had to adapt to everything,” Tyla shared in a recent interview with Billboard. “I don’t think it’s going to be the same energy [as Tyla] at all, especially with what I’ve started making. It’s different, but also still Tyla.”
Her meteoric rise began in 2023 when “Water” became a viral sensation, blending amapiano, Afrobeats, R&B, and pop into a globally adored hit. By March 2024, she had released her self-titled debut album, Tyla, which further solidified her place as a game-changer in the music industry.
Even a back injury that forced her to cancel her debut Coachella set and international tour couldn’t slow her down. Tyla bounced back in style, making a stunning debut at the 2024 Met Gala and performing at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, where her song Push 2 Start became her second entry on the Billboard Hot 100.
Her historic Grammy win in 2024, where she took home the first-ever Best African Music Performance award for “Water,” made her the youngest African artist to win a Grammy. She followed that up with victories at the BET Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and MTV VMAs, proving her staying power.
Despite winning multiple “Afrobeats” awards, Tyla has been vocal about how her music is often mislabeled.
“It’s still an honor because I do use Afrobeats’ influence in my music,” she explained. “I represent Africa as a whole. Genre is so fluid, so it’s become difficult to categorize it. If people see it as the influence that the artist is using in their music getting its recognition, it’ll help more [with perceptions], rather than being like, ‘This person is not that.’”
Tyla has performed on some of the biggest stages worldwide, but her favorite shows were in South Africa.
“The shows I did back home [in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Pretoria]… Those were the biggest headlining shows I’ve ever had,” she recalled. “It was fun being able to have that much control over the stage, the dancing, the lighting, the song arrangements. It was really cool to create something from scratch and give home a whole show that I’ve never been able to give them.”
With Coachella finally happening for her in April and a brand-new album on the way in 2025, Tyla is ready to take things to another level.
