BURNING BRIGHT

Tyla's rise, from South African newcomer to a global popiano sensation, is a reminder that dance music knows no boundaries.

- Funmi Fetto

In the back of a Mercedes-Benz van that is spiriting her through London, Tyla—full name Tyla Laura Seethal—is attempting to make sense of her extraordinary catapult to world fame. For the journey across the city, where she's been for barely 72 hours, she's cocooned in a fluffy white dressing gown with matching slippers, sprawled across three seats. It's not quite a horizontal stance, but definitely a half-lying situation. Tyla is literally, unapologetically, taking up space.

She could be forgiven for being a little on the tired side. We are meeting at the tail end of a year that saw her mash-up of pop, R&B, Afrobeats, and the South African style of amapiano turn her into music's most powerful new mononym, dubbed the "Queen of Popiano." If 2023 was her breakout, 2024 was the year she became a fully fledged superstar: At the 2024 Grammys, Tyla, just 22, took home the gong for best African music performance; her eponymous debut album (more than 1.5 billion streams and counting) came out; and in October she performed on the Victoria's Secret runway.