South African music artist Tyla. The muso has broken a number of records in 2023. Picture: tyla/Instagram
It is said that people lie and numbers don’t and the figures that South African singer Tyla is generating around her music reflect the impact the 21-year-old has had, globally.
Whether you think she’s the real deal or not, Tyla’s impact is palpable. She released her hit single Water in July, without a big-name feature. The song has broken a number of long-standing records.
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. The track currently sits at number 24.
Tyla Laura Seethal, is a South African singer who is a cocktail of R&B lyrics and tone, backed by Amapiano beats.
In a recent post, she teased an upcoming remix to Water leaving many of her Tygers, as she refers to her ardent fans, guessing who she’ll feature.
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Tyla has shot into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, sitting at number 18 up from 35 last week. “The week’s most popular current songs across all genres, ranked by streaming activity from digital music sources tracked by Luminate, radio airplay audience impression as measured by Luminate and sales data compiled by Luminate,” the Billboard defines the Top 100 on its website.
Luminate is a data company in the entertainment space dedicated to identifying data and trends that tell multifaceted stories framed by today’s culture.
“Generally, charts reflect sales and airplay between Friday and Thursday of any given week. Charts are refreshed every Tuesday on Billboard.com and reflect the date of the Billboard issue in which they appear; online-only charts display the same corresponding date.”
Water earned Tyla an inaugural Grammy nomination in the Best African Music Performance category last week and this has impacted the song’s performance on the charts.
On the Artist Billboard Chart, Tyla holds the 50th spot, a slight drop from the 44 she held in the previous week. The week’s most popular artists across all genres, ranked by album and track sales as compiled by Luminate, radio airplay audience impressions as compiled by Luminate and streaming activity data from online sources tracked by Luminate.
Tyla’s streaming numbers on Spotify have increased in-tandem with the popularity of her song Water, but listeners seem to love her other songs too. Her monthly listeners on the streaming platform sit at 26,658,301.
TANTALIZERS, a playlist on Spotify embraces and celebrates the soulful melodies of R&B infused with local flavours from across Africa’s vast and vibrant geographical and musical landscape. Tyla’s Girl Next Door featuring Nigeria’s Ayra Starr is one of the biggest ditties on the playlist. The song itself has been streamed more than six million times.
On the Billboard’s Top 50 TikTok chart, which is based on weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the US, based on creations, video views and user engagement, Tyla is stationed at number 16, a drop from 11.
The TikTok impact is boosted by Tyla posting videos of her dancing to Water 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 more than 1.2 million times in other people’s videos.
Tyla released the video to Water just over a month ago, racking up one million views in a day. It currently has more than 43 million views on YouTube.
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