Tyla Cements Her Superstardom With a Massive Pop Up Shop Turnout in Johannesburg
Africa’s youngest Grammy Award winner and ‘Water’ hit-maker Tyla’s celebrity stocks have risen to historic heights over the past year. From becoming an ambassador for esteemed fashion brand, GAP to breaking records with her self-titled debut album, the singing sensation’s presence in the entertainment industry has been impossible to ignore. Above all these incredible achievements, the great turnout at her pop up shop in Mall of Africa, Johannesburg is what has created an online frenzy, with social media users giving a nod to her superstardom.
Aside from dominating the charts, Tyla has also been a hot topic on social media. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the videos from Tyla’s pop up shop have sparked a debate about her stardom among cultural critics, with some suggesting that she is South Africa’s first real celebrity (even alluding to her being bigger than Bonang Matheba), while others are saying the hype around her is temporary.
Following the launch of her merch collection which comprises graphic tees, caps, vinyl records, and the ever-so-popular A4 celebrity posters, Tyla hosted her first pop up shop in London where Tygers (her fans) could buy merch – and get to take pictures with her, of course. Judging from the videos shared on social media, the event was a great success with hundreds of supporters gathered at the event. Her pop up at the Mall of Africa was no different – except that most of her fans unfortunately didn’t get to meet her, or let alone get into the pop up shop.
As a day one Tyger, (I’m talking ‘Getting Late’ featuring Kooldrink days), I was rather disappointed by her team’s planning of the event.
These are some of my grievances:
Hosting a pop up event for a superstar inside a mall is a choice…a bad one at that
Firstly, hosting a pop up event for a celebrity of Tyla’s calibre was a very bad idea. I got to the event before noon (which was the set time for the event to start) and the queue was already horrendous. The event would have been more pleasant for attendees had it been hosted in an open area outside the mall, with a few items of the merch items on display. Hosting it inside the mall made it impossible for everyone to get into the store, despite getting there early.
Can we stick to the agreed-upon time? Please?
For some odd reason, the pop up store only opened its doors to queuing customers at 1:30 PM – an hour and a half after the set time. Expectedly, only a few people could go in at a time so only a quarter, if not less of the people present were actually able to get in. Moreover, customers who got into the store and bought merch had to join ANOTHER queue to get their merch signed by Tyla.
Better Communication
Throughout the course of standing in the agonisingly long queue, there was not much communication from the organisers. In fact, we all started wondering if Tyla would actually show up. Luckily, Tyla finally arrived at almost 3 PM, three hours after the set time for the store’s opening. As excited as I was to see her, the disorganisation made the experience underwhelming. This is something that was being voiced by other fans in the queue as well.
To top it off, people from her team came to tell us to leave soon after 4 PM seeing that the queue was long and we probably weren’t going to make it in.
Considering that Tyla is arguably the first of her status in South Africa, I think we can let this slide as a hiccup since her team might still be trying to figure things out. However, it is unfair that the London pop up seemed to be better organised, especially considering that South Africa is her home ground.
Despite the disappointing planning of the pop up shop, one thing is certain from the turnout: Tyla is easily one of the most influential entertainment industry personalities in South African history. With all the qualities of a pop star, namely: an airy voice, killer dance moves, and a bubbly personality, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that the award-winning singer’s success in the music industry was written in the stars since her auspicious debut.
