South African-born poppiano singer Tyla is on an upward trajectory and there’s no sign of her slowing down.
Tyla recently made history when she became the youngest South African to win a Grammy award, at 22, in the inaugural Best African Music Performance category for her chart-topping hit, “Water”.
She went on to release her debut self-titled studio album in March.
Social media detractors who labelled Tyla as a “one hit wonder” are now left to choke on their words as the Johannesburg-born artist occupies most of the Top 10 spots on this week’s Billboard US Afrobeats Songs chart.
Tyla’s “Water” remains in the No.1 spot for the 25th time since it entered the Billboard charts 31 weeks ago, and six of her new songs make their way down to the Top 10.
“On My Body” secured the No.10 spot on the chart, “Safer” is at No.8, “Jump” is at No.6, “No.1”, featuring Tems, is at No.5, “ART” is at No.4, with “Truth or Dare” currently at No.3.
Tyla’s fans, known as “Tigers”, have expressed their excitement for the global star, the first African artist to ever secure this many songs in a Top 10 chart.
Meanwhile, haters are unhappy with the charts and suggest that there are many other “more deserving” artists from Africa that could be on the Top 10.
@drip_savaaag commented: “Why is tyla only on this chart when other people are better.”
@ajeboproperties suggested that the charts be renamed to “Tyla’s billboard chart”.
@tedicalaura wrote, “What Tyla is doing to Nigerians is not funny 😂. I mean she's the first artist in history to do this on a so called supposed chart that's meant for Nigerians.
“7 songs at the same time under top 10 when no Nigerian artist has ever charted even 4 songs is crazy.
“Plus 8 songs in the top 10 are all Amapiano South African songs. Amapiano to the world. This is how Amapiano colonized Afrobeats 🔥🇿🇦.”
Listen to “Water” below: