Tyla called out international awards for grouping African artists as one. Picture: Taylor Hill /Getty Images
Like a sports coach expressing disgruntlement after victory, South Africa’s Tyla called out international awards for grouping African artists in one category.
This is after she won in the Best Afrobeats category at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).
“This is just so special but also bittersweet because I know there’s a tendency to group all Africans under Afrobeats,” the 22-year-old said in her acceptance speech.
“Even though Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse… more than just Afrobeats.”
Afrobeats is a Nigerian genre that fuses influences from other Naija genres such as Fuji, which is a Yorùbá traditional music based on percussion, choral call and response.
Afrobeats is also a cocktail of juju, jazz, highlife, funk and soul.
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The South African singer, whose real name is Tyla Laura Seethal, used the opportunity at the VMAs to educate its international audience on the disparities of African music.
“I come from South Africa, I represent Amapiano, I represent my culture…I just want to shoutout all the Afrobeats artists in this category with me,” said Tyla, paying homage to some of the Nigerian artists she was nominated alongside.
“This is such a big moment for Africa, African music. Like, guys the global impact that Water has had on the world just proves that African music can be pop music too,” said Tyla.
Tyla isn’t the first South African to comment on how international award ceremonies box African acts into one category as an afterthought.
Before heading to New York for his headline show at Madison Square Garden last year, Black Coffee touched on African music getting the respect it deserves on the world’s stage.
“I’ve just always felt like this music deserves to be on the biggest platform as possible. I used to do interviews back in the day and I remember one journalist asked me, while I was in New York, ‘what are you trying to do’” said Black Coffee.
“My answer was, imagine Superman which is sung by Bucie, being sung by Beyoncé, without changing anything. The genre deserves that.”
Eminem opened the night with his first TV performance since he dropped his 12th studio LP, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), and Megan Thee Stallion who was nominated for seven Moon Person awards this year, hosted after Nicki Minaj’s turn as master of ceremonies last year.
Taylor Swift made history by taking home the Video of the Year award, a feat that made her the first person to win the top prize five times. In doing so, she broke her own record.
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