South African artist, Tayla, on stage on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Picture: fallontonightbts/Instagram
South African singer Tyla made her debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform her hit single Water, this after breaking another record on streaming platform Spotify.
“Not long ago I was just a girl in South Africa dreaming of moments like this. Even though I’ve been grinding for years it feels like this is all happening so fast,” said the Mzansi lass on her Instagram.
“I cannot wait for the world to see what an African popstar looks like.”
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is one of the biggest late night TV shows in the US; the world’s biggest entertainers and personalities are a mainstay on Fallon’s couch. Prior to the show, true to Fallon, he did a skit with Tyla where he looked dumbfounded after the South African grabbed a bottle of water from him, as though he was her skivvy.
The 21-year-old muso whose real name is Tyla Laura Seethal, has built a reputation as one of the South Africans taking the Amapiano sound to the world, alongside the likes of Uncle Waffles. But her star has rapidly risen after releasing the song, Water.
ALSO READ: Who is Tyla? – Mzansi artist who broke Master KG’s record and is making global waves
Water broke into Spotify’s top 40 global playlist, having been streamed over 40 million times. Water entered the Apple Music US chart at number 82, making it the highest charting song by a South African artist since Master KG’s Jerusalema.
Tyla has now overtaken Burna Boy to have the second most Spotify monthly listeners in Africa. She has 19.4 million Spotify monthly listeners. At the time of writing this, the song had been streamed more than 96 million times on Spotify.
What has made the song even bigger, is the videos of Tyla dancing to the song and performing it on stage – prompting fans to want to try it themselves. The hashtags #TylaWater and #TylaWaterChallenge have more than 448.6 million views combined, and the song has been used in more than 500,000 videos on the app as people post themselves mimicking her moves.
@hiptv__ @Tyla with the Movesss 💥🔥 #tyla #tylawater #tylawaterchallenge #watertyla #hiptv #viralvideo #fyp #unclewaffles ♬ Water – Tyla
NOW READ: South Africa’s amapiano star Tyla makes Billboard Hot 100 debut
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