South Africa's Tyla wins the Inaugural African Music Performance Award at the Grammys
By Neo Poho
South African singer, Tyla has won a Grammy award at the Grammys in the category of Best African Music Performance on Sunday.
The artist won the award for her afropiano and R&B song Water, which has reached global popularity and made various achievements.
Tyla accepted her award at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards premiere ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
The premiere ceremony, held ahead of the main ceremony, is where the majority of awards are handed out.
Tyla beat other African stars, including Burna Boy, Ayra Starr, ASAKE & Olamide and Davido featuring South African artist Musa Keys.
In her acceptance speech, the 22-year old said, "Oh my, what the heck! Oh my gosh, guys, this is crazy because I never thought I would say I have won a Grammy at 22 years old.
If you don't know me, my name is Tyla and I am from South Africa and last year God decided to change my whole life, so thank you so much to God, thank you to my team, my family; I know my mother's crying somewhere in here and also thank you to the Recording Academy for this category, it's so important and I know I am forgetting some things, but I won a Grammy! Thank you, thank you."
As the Best African Music Performance is a new category for the Grammys, added for the 2024 ceremony, Tyla became the first recipient of the award.
Tyla dropped her hit single Water in July 2023; the song spawned a TikTok dance challenge, with users participating across the world.
The song would eventually land on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 7.
This was the first time in 55 years, since Hugh Masekela's Grazing in the Grass, that a solo song by a South African musician made it onto the chart.
Being 21 years old at the time, Tyla became the youngest South African to appear on the prestigious list.
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Best African Music Perfomance
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