On a dazzling night in Elmont, New York South Africa’s Tyla Seethal made history by becoming the first female African artist to win the American-owned Vmas.
Tyla won in the best Afrobeats category for her smash hit ‘Water’ at the annual soiree set on the 11th of September 2024, and held at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York where some of the biggest stars in global showbiz showed up to celebrate one of pop culture’s biggest nights.
For the South African superstar, the win meant she became the first-ever female African artist to clinch the coveted ‘Moon Man’. She also became the youngest African artist to win a Grammy, Billboard, and VMA award.
The MTV VMA was presented to Tyla by American singers, Halle Bailey and Lil Nas X, and as accustomed an acceptance speech was required.
With enthused composure, Tyla took the stage to collect her much-deserved award and ultimately to give a winner’s acceptance speech.
Tyla’s speech started not without a brief, somewhat awkward moment( depending on the respective viewer’s perception) where she signaled her distress with having to hold the award while simultaneously giving her speech because of how heavy the award was and in a bid to lift the weight off her petite build, she reached out to her award presenters (Bailey and Lil Nas) for help with the mini statue. Thankfully, Lil Nas X acted proactively, saving the moments of its cringe-worthy awkwardness.
With the awkward moment saved, she began her speech with the traditional vote of thanks before proceeding into what one would presume to be premeditated matters of concern.
The speech reads: “The Global impact that ‘Water'(Seethal’s smash hit) has had on the World just proves that African music can be pop music too. Like this is just so special but also bitter-sweet because I know there is a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats. It’s a thing 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 represent my culture and I just wanna shout out all the Afrobeats Artists in this Category with me.”
Since surfacing on the internet, Tyla’s speech has been met with mixed public views.
While a seeming majority were prompt at hailing the singer, applauding her temerity for calling out the ‘Ignorant Generalisation of African Music’ by the West, and doing so on American soil, where it most stung, some were filled with outrage as to why Tyla, a South African pop artist won in an Afrobeats category, trumping over ‘real’ Afrobeats artists in the process, and others perceived the singer’s free gestured personality to be reminiscent of an entitled, uppity African diva.
As usual, X, the user-centric opinion-based platform was where most of the back and forth ensued and Tyla’s speech had kicked off a cornucopia of discourse that was advertently bound to shift from pop culture squabbles into toxic thug of war stemming from bloated socio-cultural egos – The Nigerians’, The South Africans’ and The Americans’.
Everything right with the speech:
Tyla’s Tone:
First, let’s start by unpacking Tyla’s seeming intentions. From the tone of her voice down to her expressive body movements, it’s almost easy to deduce from the speech a well-intentioned vibe. She doesn’t appear malicious with her words. If anything, Tyla aims at correcting long-held notions about African music. I mean, the content gives it away “The Global impact that ‘Water’ has had on the World just proves that African music can be pop music too”.
These first few words are hefty in power and they carry soft braggadocio. It is no news that Tyla is an outlier amongst a few others like Ayra Starr and Tems who are changing the narratives of African pop/R&B in the eyes of an ever-growing foreign fan base. But somehow, the need to re-iterate is imperative, especially when it pertains to long-held beliefs.
She acknowledges Afrobeats’ Influence in the Growth of African music albeit ‘bitter-sweet‘
Another factor that fits into the justification of Tyla’s speech being well-intentioned and right is her intuition to give Afrobeats due credit for the global reach that African music as a whole enjoys.
In her words, “Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us.” Despite the ‘bitter-sweet’ clause infused, anyone can agree that this is at least noble of the singer.
She pinpoints the diverse nature of African Music
In her short however impactful speech, the singer gave a mini orientation into the diverse nature of African music, making a case for the abhorrent practice of the Western world’s linear musical genre classification tendencies especially when it pertained to grouping African music for award ceremonies such as the VMAs.
Everything wrong with the speech
Psych! there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Tyla’s speech. The only thing wrong is the varied nature of the audience’s perception – a phenomenon affecting communication ( lest I digress).
If something is fundamentally wrong with the speech, it would be the misleading tendencies. For one, it is in the fact that ‘Water’ is inherently an Afrobeats song (it is more Afrobeats than Amapiano, trust me) and therefore fits into the category. The brief use of log drums doesn’t automatically render it an Amapiano record, and it’s ignorant to think otherwise.
Lastly, the generalization of African music into one umbrella category might seem irrational from an African point of view, and rightly so. It is however important to note that the VMAs are American-owned and, in all honesty, can be administered however the Americans deem fit ( unfortunately, this is how the world works). Maybe the prime focus as Africans should be building VMAs of our own.
