Tyla kicks against boxing of all African music as Afrobeats

South African singer, Tyla, has spoken out against the categorisation of all African music as afrobeats by the West.

Tyla, who spoke while accepting her award for Best Afrobeats Song at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night, said Afrobeats has opened a lot of doors for African music but it was wrong to categorise every music from the continent under the genre.

She explained that she is from South Africa and represents the Amapiano genre.

She said: “The impact that ‘Water’ has had on the world proves that African music can be pop music, too. This is so special but also bittersweet. Because I know there’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats.

“Even though Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse. It’s more than just Afrobeats.

“I come from South Africa, I represent Amapiano. I present my culture. And I just want to shout out all the Afrobeats artists in this category with me. Shout out to all the Afrobeats artistes Tems, Ayra Starr, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Rema and Lojay.”