South African sineger-songwriter Tyla poses in the pressroom with the Best Afrobeats award for ‘Water,’ during the MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, on September 11, 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS).
South African-born superstar Tyla has bagged the Best Afrobeats honours at the MTV Video Music Awards, following her Grammy, Billboard and BET wins.
The 22-year-old, whose full name is Tyla Laura Seethal, took the honours for her viral song “Water” on Wednesday night in New York City.
Dazzling in a bright yellow string dress from Area's Spring/Summer 2025 Collection, the “Jump” hitmaker took to the stage as the audience applauded her for yet another accolade.
During her acceptance speech, she described her win as “bittersweet”.
“This is such a big moment for Africa, African music, like guys, the global impact that ‘Water’ has had on the world just proves that African music can be pop music too,” she said.
“This is just so special but it is also bittersweet because I know there is a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats, it’s a thing and even though Afrobeats has run things, it has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse, it's more than just Afrobeats,” she added.
“I come from South Africa, I represent amapiano, I represent my culture and I just want to shout out all the Afrobeats artists in this category with me … Africa to the world.”
She made history with her VMA win, becoming the First Female African Artist and the First South African Artist to win the prize.
Meanwhile, Tyla has also faced criticism for handing her trophy over to “The Little Mermaid” star Halle Bailey on the stage, describing the VMAs Moon Person statuette as “very heavy.”
As many described her as “unlikeable”, she took to X to write: “Y'all make everything weird…I was not asking my girl Halle… We just girls, STFU I WON A VMAAAA.”
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift was the biggest winner at the awards, which was hosted by Megan Thee Stallion.
The 34-year-old won seven VMA trophies, which included Video of the Year for her “Fortnight” music video, featuring Post Malone, as well as Artist of the Year and Song of Summer for the same song.
The “Shake It Off” hitmaker brought her career VMA trophies to a total of 30, which is on par with Beyonce’s VMA wins.
Sabrina Carpenter took home the Moon Person for Song of the Year for “Espresso”, “Good Luck, Babe” singer Chappell Roan was named Best New Artist and Katy Perry was the recipient of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
SZA, Eminem, Lenny Kravitz and Blackpink’s Lisa were among the other winners. The winners are voted on by fans.
Eminem also opened the show with “Houdini” from his album “The Death of Slim Shady” before country singer Jelly Roll joined him via a video feed for their hit song, “Somebody Save Me”.
Perry also performed a medley of her hits and other performers included Anitta (featuring Fat Joe, DJ Khaled and Tiago PZK), LL Cool J, Benson Boone, Camila Cabello, Halsey, Lenny Kravitz (with Quavo and Doechii), Shawn Mendes and Carpenter.