Twenty-two year old Grammy Award winning Musician, Tyla, is the African It girl of the moment and the progenitor of the song that is on everybody’s lips. Since catapulting into limelight with her global, billboard charting smash hit, ‘Water’, the South African star has transcended from a state of obscurity, and has moved into World class level stardom. She has reached the seeming peak of musical greatness, achieving this very early in her career as a singer-songwriter. An astounding feat indeed.
Tyla’s recent groundbreaking win at the Grammys which saw her beat out the likes of Burna Boy, Ayra Starr, Davido, Musa Keys, Asake & Olamide for the coveted prize of the inaugural ‘Best African Music Performance‘, is not only a testament to the impeccable quality of Tyla’s music, but also a nod to the power of the strategic partnership that exists between Tyla and music streaming giant, Spotify.
In a recent Linkedin post written by Jocelyne Muhutu- Remy, who is Spotify’s Managing Director, Sub- Saharan Africa, she praised Tyla for the Grammy win, lauding her feat ”a groundbreaking moment for South African music”, before proceeding to write a timeline breakdown, dating the strategic campaigns held by Spotify Africa that led to Tyla’s ascension.
According to the music executive, ”For team Spotify Africa, witnessing her(Tyla) rise in the past year has been nothing less than sensational”.
Proceeding the aforementioned quote, Muhutu then went on to recap Spotify’s Radar Africa programme which featured Tyla on May 5th, 2023. The programme, with the main objective aimed at driving the discovery of rising acts across the globe, focused on Tyla, alongside a special documentary to go with.
Two months later, Spotify screens Tyla’s Radar Africa documentary at a pre-release party of the then unpopular ‘Water’. The documentary gave intricate insights into Tyla’s personality as it touched on her background, her lifelong passion of becoming a superstar, her patriotic and amiable loyalty to country, family, and friends. Notably, the roll-out for the documentary included a playback of ‘Water’, subconsciously introducing the song to listeners and fans alike. Ten days later, ‘Water’ was released on every major online streaming platform.
The defining moment however came in mid-August, when Spotify invited Tyla for a musical performance at the Giants of Africa Festival; a festival co-spear headed by Spotify. Tyla’s invigorating onstage performance at the festival gave birth to the viral ‘Water’ dance challenge which permeated Tiktok timelines and subsequently led to the insane breakout of the single. ”Less than a week after the performance, Water’s rise began: a million streams in a single day for the first time on September 15th”.
In the ensuing month, a million streams for ‘Water’ became a hundred million, announcing it as a full-blown global hit. According to Jocelyne, popular Editorial playlists such as Hot Hits Uk, Hot Hits Us, Viral Hits, and Today’s Top Hits played vital roles in the song’s major discovery. ‘Water is currently on more than 200 Spotify editorial and algorithmetic playlists, including the most popular ones, and fans have added it to 8 Million of their own playlists too!”.
