The global superstar from Edenvale

Global ‘popiano’ sensation Tyla, who won her first Grammy at the age of 22, has come a long way from her hometown of Edenvale in the East Rand of Gauteng.

She boasts nearly three billion streams on Spotify, and hopes to pave the way for more South Africans in the music industry. 

Tyla Laura Seethal, known as Tyla, was born to Sharleen and Sherwin Seethal in 2002 and grew up in Edenvale as one of four children.

She said in an interview with Variety that her parents were “intentionally strict” and didn’t allow her to sleep over or visit friends’ houses, so she spent much of her time playing with her siblings at home. 

She grew up in a family that valued music. She said her father would wake her and her siblings up before school by singing. 

Tyla often danced with her sisters to Aaliyah, Boyz II Men, Michael Jackson, Mi Casa, and Rihanna while they did chores.

Her mother was creative and spent her free time making candles, jewelry, and chocolate. She was an inspiration to Tyla and encouraged her to sing. 

She said she always dreamed of a music career. “Ever since I could say the word ‘singer,’ it was all I told people I wanted to be. Nothing else ever felt right, and I truly believe it’s my calling,” Tyla said in an interview with Metal Magazine.

The popstar said that she and her friends would spend break times during school doing performances inspired by Destiny’s Child for their classmates.

“We’d tell everyone: ‘there’s a performance here at this time,’” she recalled. 

She began writing songs in her diary at the age of 12. By the time she was attending Edenglen High School, Tyla was writing and singing her own original songs on social media. 

The artist spent her teens posting videos of her performing her original songs, as well as covers of Beyoncé and Justin Bieber. She reached out to any and everyone who worked in music, to no avail.

A Grammy-winning gap year

When she matriculated in 2019, the artist hit a crossroads in her life. She had to choose whether she would continue to pursue a music career despite the risk, or rather, obtain a university degree and follow a more stable path.

Tyla planned to pursue a degree in mining engineering, prompted by her parents’ worry that she wouldn’t become a successful musician. 

“A lot of people in my family wanted to become musicians, and it didn’t work out, so that’s all my parents knew. They didn’t want that for me, and it was obviously out of love,” she said in an interview on her website. 

Tyla persuaded her parents to allow her to take a gap year to focus on her music. “I had to make the decision: ‘Mom and Dad, I’m so sorry, but I’m gonna go for this,” she said. 

Her relentless efforts to contact those in the music industry eventually paid off when Brandon Hixon, co-founder of New York’s FAX Records, responded and offered her a record deal. 

When developing her own sound, Tyla said she always wanted to incorporate music from her home country, such as amapiano and kwaito, and make them her own – dubbing it ‘popiano.’ 

Her musical style is described by Billboard as a mix of pop, R&B, and Afrobeats with the shakers, rattling log drums, and soulful piano melodies of amapiano.

Tyla released her first singles in 2021 and 2022. “Getting Late”, “Overdue”, and “To Last” garnered her moderate success in South Africa and internationally, but it was her 2023 song, “Water”, that made her a global sensation. 

The song went viral on social media alongside a video of Tyla pouring water on herself onstage as part of a Bacardi-inspired dance routine by choreographer Lee-ché. The video received almost 10 billion views.

Millions of TikTok users took on the viral “water challenge”, copying Tyla’s dance moves and posting them to the social media platform. 

The song propelled Tyla to fame and won her the title of Best African Music Performance at the 66th Grammy Awards at the age of 22. 

Looking ahead, as she prepares to launch her second album, Tyla said that following up her initial success would be a challenge. 

“When ‘Water’ happened, I wasn’t ready. I became obsessed with the idea of doing things ‘right, ’ she said. 

“I wanted more time to make mistakes and fully figure out who I am as an artist.”  

She said to Nylon magazine that she has been frustrated by the lack of attention that South African music and musicians receive. 

She always wanted to see somebody from South Africa do what she is doing, like being on a Grammy stage, performing at big award shows, attending the Met Gala

“What’s happened to me is not a normal thing. I don’t think any human could go from where I came from and feel normal about millions of people knowing who you are.”

“I just want more of us there. And for it to be easier – for all of us to have the same fair chance. Because I remember how hard it was just to be seen,” she said.