Tyla, a musician from South Africa, has voiced reservations about the trend of the Western entertainment business to categorize all African music as Afrobeats.
Afrobeats has given African music a lot of opportunity, Tyla said on Wednesday night as she accepted her award for Best Afrobeats Song at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards.
She did, however, stress that it is incorrect to include all music from the continent in one genre.
She explained that she is a representative of the Amapiano genre and is originally from South Africa.
“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,” she stated.
