If Tyla had a dollar for every time her award wins ruffled feathers, she’d be richer than the Recording Academy itself.
In the past year, the 22-year-old South African has won a Grammy, BET, Billboard, and now MTV VMA award—which she picked up on September 12 at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. However, she bagged a few “buts” with them.
Her most recent VMA win seems to have triggered what can only be described as a genre civil war. The bone of contention? Her genre allegiance—or, in this case, lack thereof. Oh, and also the weight of the award (seriously!).
You see, Tyla considers herself to be less of an Afrobeats artist and more of an Amapiano one. The “Water” singer confirmed that during her acceptance speech of the very award, saying,
“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… I represent Amapino and South African culture.”
Thus, even as she paid homage to her fellow Afrobeats nominees and South Africans congratulated her, some Nigerians didn’t find the whole charade funny.
Obing Roviel on X summed it up best: “Tyla collected the Afrobeats award and said she’s not an Afrobeat artist, but she didn’t drop the award back, oya nau.” In other words, drop the bloody award if you don’t fit in it.
Glorious Nnenna voiced her displeasure, saying, “Tyla in the Afrobeat category is insanity itself.”
“You won an award for Afrobeats and went ahead on stage to say you represent Amapiano,” said Joy.
Fingers were pointed at MTV itself, with one user, Oluwatobiloba, lamenting, “MTV no know music genre again,” and another speculated what the world would look like if Burna Boy bagged an Amapiano award. In short, “MTV should do a better job of understanding music genres,” said the user.
But critics were apparently mad at another thing.
Upon receiving the award, Tyla respectfully asked one of the presenters, Lil Nas X, to hold the award on her behalf, stating, “You guys know me and holding awards, yoh hai. I’m not strong enough.” This gesture was deemed acceptable by a few souls on social media.
“Tyla is very unlikable & currently why I know record labels are still paying for awards it’s funny,” one user wrote.
Others were less subtle.
“You made shit weird; next time hold your award, you lazy f*ck,” was what another user had to say.
Armon Wiggins, however, got the most attention—including Tyla’s—for his criticism of the South African’s attitude, even going so far as to call her an “uppity African.”
“Hey, I don’t think I like TYLA’s personality. I think someone needs to check her because she doesn’t understand American culture AT ALL. She almost gives off entitled or uppity African; idk how to explain it, but it’s very off-putting,” he bemoaned.
He even went as far as uploading a video on YouTube titled, “The Problem With Tyla, Someone’s Gotta Tell Her.”
Tyla answered by briefly changing her X bio to “Entitled Uppity African” and posting, “Y’all make everything weird… STFU, I WON A VMAAAA.” Halle Bailey was quick to jump in and support her, tweeting, “Exactly, love you, babes, congrats.”
And if this all feels like déjà vu, it’s because it is. Back in February, Tyla and the Recording Academy faced a similar backlash from Nigerians when she snagged the inaugural “Best African Music Performance” at the Grammys. The trolls, however, clearly haven’t dimmed her shine.
Whether or not Tyla’s award placement in the “Afrobeats” category was a blunder, one thing is clear—she’s not putting down the trophy.