Streams, Sales, and Stats: Why Tyla Deserves Every Single Award She Has Won
Etching her name into the history books has been par for the course for South Africa’s global pop star and IT girl Tyla Seethal Laura since the release of her international hit single “Water”. This past weekend, she added a pair of international accolades to her stellar trophy cabinet: BET Awards for Best New Artist and Best International Act. Already the youngest Grammy winner of African origin, Tyla’s career has been a source of inspiration and a testimony of how quick fortunes can turn for the better if one keeps on.
However, with the wins have come criticisms, with the opposition claiming that not only did she not deserve her awards, particularly Best New Artist, but that her rise has been a fluke and that she’s a beneficiary of pretty privilege undeserving of all the highs she’s experienced since she phased into global superstardom.
There, however, are a number of things to consider, key facts that show that Tyla is a deserving recipient of all her awards.
Tyla With Her BET Award | SUPPLIED
Why Tyla Deserved “Best New Artist” At the BET Awards – Even Ahead of Sexxy Red
After the towering success of “Water”, all eyes were on Tyla’s forthcoming self-titled debut album. Riding on the crest of Grammy hype as well as the well-received follow-up single “Truth or Dare”, the album was released to rave acclaim from critics, who applauded Tyla’s musical versatility and the youthful tone of her maiden LP.
Tyla’s first album was not merely a critical success but a commercial one within the American market, moving a history-defining 24 000 units after its first week in the sun, thus handing the album the number 24 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. None of the other nominees had an album or a mixtape released in 2023 that out-charted Tyla’s debut project.
With these numbers, Tyla cemented her place in Billboard history as the first African soloist act to land that high on the chart with her debut album. Additionally, upon the album’s release, she became the first artist to block seven out of the top ten spots in the Billboard US Afrobeats chart.
Apart from the success of the album, Tyla’s “Water” became the first song by a South African solo act to land in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 55 years. The single went on to be certified double platinum in the US, securing a peak position of the number 7 spot. In the same time period, none of the artists she was nominated with for the award peaked that high on the same chart off a single they released as a lead artist.
Watch “Water”:
Streaming wise, Tyla has been ahead compared to her colleagues. Boasting 696 million streams off “Water” alone, the song has more streams than each artist’s biggest song on the platform – the closest being Ayra Starr’s “Rush” with 377 million streams. With 27 million monthly listeners on Spotify compared to 18 million by Sexxy Red, it follows absolutely no reason that Tyla is a “lesser” star as according to the court of public opinion. In June, her album reached a billion streams, making her the first female African artist to get to the mark.
Critically, commercially, and metrically speaking, Tyla had a stellar year compared to her counterparts who were nominated alongside her. And while they all excelled in their different fields, Tyla stretched the boundaries of what it means to go global. She created her own frontiers, carving her identity as the queen of popiano. Musically and taking numbers into account, Tyla deserved the BET Best New Artist Award, and it had nothing to do with her skin colour or pretty privilege. Just pure talent and due diligence.
Tyla’s Self-Titled Debut Album
It’s Tyla’s Time to Shine, Not to Taint the Legacies Of Her Peers
It has become something of a knee-jerk reaction, and an illogical tradition, for detractors to trivialise Tyla’s successes and major award wins by bringing up musical acts that came before her but never reached the heights of fame she’s touched.
Just as with after her Grammy win earlier this year, Tyla’s BET Award victories stoked debates about how singer-songwriter Elaine would’ve been in her position, if not for a number of various reasons, including the competence of her management team.
Tyla | SUPPLIED
However, what the naysayers neglect to understand is that Elaine very much made lemonade during her time, with her 2019 EP Elements breaking a number of streaming records and winning her a deal with Columbia Records, one of America’s most prestigious labels. And while she hasn’t been able to attain Grammy gold, she did score herself a BET Best New International Act nod in 2021 for her exploits. And she did all this as an indie R&B artist.
Another factor worth considering is that Tyla’s success coincided with the global expansion of amapiano as a genre, an explosion which took her music well over the line, as opposed to R&B, which has been a weaker form of musical art in the musical world. Does this mean that Tyla’s purple patch has been a fluke? By no means. What’s worth keeping in mind when making the unfair comparison between Tyla and Elaine (or any other female musician from the past) is the element of luck that comes with making a certain type of music, at a certain time, and during a period when the world is more open, even if only to a certain degree, to novelty. Amapiano is novel – R&B isn’t.
When all is said and done, Tyla’s wins are worth celebrating and noting without tainting the legacies of her contemporaries, as she also highlighted in her speech after winning Best New Artist that the award was for Africa and all those who came before her who weren’t fortunate enough to get the same opportunities.