Tyla, South Africa’s amapiano angel, manifests stardom in debut album

By GARY GERARD HAMILTON
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Tyla, who won the inaugural Grammy for African music performance last month, has released her self-titled debut album. Powered by “Water” which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and trended on TikTok with the viral #WaterChallenge dance, the album boasts features from Tems, Gunna, Skillibeng, Becky G and Travis Scott, who appears on the “Water” remix. The 22-year-old South African has become one of the leading faces popularizing music originating from Africa. As Afrobeats has gained massive attention the past few years, Tyla is introducing much of the world to amapiano, which translates to “the pianos” in the Zulu language, a fusion of Kwaito house music and jazz, often driven by log drums.