South African singer Tyla continued her sweep of global awards at the 2024 MTV EMAs, going home with the Best African Act, Best Afrobeats Act, and Best R&B Act. She gave credit to Afrobeats at the event, and her speech went viral on the internet.
The speech which came as a shock to many was full of praise for Afrobeats and what it has done for the continent. It came off as surprising due to Tyla’s earlier speech at the VMAs this year where she denounced Afrobeats and identified as an Amapiano artist, urging fans to label her separately.
At the VMAs, when receiving the award for the Best Afrobeats Act she said “This is all so special for me but also a bitter-sweet moment because I know there is a tendency to group all African music under Afrobeats.
It’s a thing and even though Afrobeats has opened so many doors for us, African music is more than just Afrobeats. I come from South Africa and I represent Amapiano and my culture.
Her decision to educate the award curators and viewers at home on how to distinguish between the different types of African pop music wasn’t well received and was met with a lot of negative feedback.
Many said she used Afrobeats as a slur on the global stage, and others agreed that it was done in bad faith. Some players in the music space deemed it unnecessary, stating that she didn’t need to throw Afrobeats under the bus to raise Amapiano.
At the MTV EMAs, while receiving the award for the Best Afrobeats Act, she decided to give Afrobeats its deserving accolades. She said, “Thank you to God, and thank you to Afrobeats. Afrobeats has opened so many doors for African music, so thank you so much to Afrobeats”.
Her speech was seen as some sort of offering to appease the gods and be on the good side of the genre again. It was received and applauded as remorseful gratitude for what the genre and movement has done for African Acts, and also Tyla herself as her global hit record Water is more of an Afrobeats single than an Amapiano record. This would explain why she keeps getting nominated for and winning the Best Afrobeats Act at global award shows.
It’s nice to see Tyla properly use her words in ways that she wouldn’t be misunderstood. She was able to say that there was African music outside of Afrobeats while still giving the genre its flowers in her latest speech.
It’s also good to see celebrities pay attention to the conversation around them on social media and be able to adjust in real-time. Congrats to Tyla on her wins at the 2024 MTV EMAs.
Her trying to apologize and right her wrongs is great and we appreciate it. Still, it is definitely not an apology we will accept, because we are facing many culture vultures at the time, and we do not know how to handle someone of this profile yet. The damage done ( however small and inconsequential ) to the image of Afrobeats for a moment on the internet is one we are still healing from. To have someone come out and win most of the awards for Afrobeats categories because she has an Afrobeats hit song, and deny Afrobeats on the same stage it got you to is unforgivable, for now at least. Tyla, we’re good.
