For many years, African music has been in the shadow of Western music. Artists were getting overlooked, and music albums were not getting recognized despite having the quality that could rival their Western counterparts. However, over the past few years, there has been a shift in the consumption of music. While artists in America continue to put out the same generic sounds, their fans have started to look for music that is more authentic.

The global shift in music consumption has led music fans all around the world to Africa. Africa, for many years, has been evolving when it comes to music creation. Artists, big and small, have been silently creating their own sound in the hopes that the world would notice them. Now there is an opportunity for artists in Africa to showcase their talents to the world, with artists such as Ayra Starr, Tems, and Tyla leading the way.

In this essay, I will be looking at South African artist Tyla and the impactful year that she has had. This year has seen Tyla become a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning artist at the age of 22, breaking records left, right, and center. However, her success has not come without controversy, with the West struggling to understand her racial background (but this is not the time for that).

On the 5th of December 2024, it was reported that Tyla was crowned Spotify's number 1 most-streamed African artist globally. This just capped off the year, which saw her win multiple awards across different award shows, both locally and internationally. Billboard ranked Tyla's self-titled album as the 13th best album of 2024—something which her fans, known as the Tygers, can be proud of. Despite unnecessary online hate, they have stood by her through tough times and continuously supported her music. This is evidence of a great artist who is only going to get better as the years go by. Back home in South Africa, Tyla was the number 1 most-streamed female album on Spotify.

A statistic, which is a testament to Tyla's hard work, was reported on the 3rd of December 2024. Her deluxe version of the self-titled album, TYLA+, became the 8th most-streamed female album of 2024 on Spotify, surpassing Cowboy Carter. Other publications, such as Pitchfork, also gave Tyla her flowers this year. TYLA was named the 22nd best album of 2024 and the number 1 female debut album, according to their editorial staff. Rolling Stone pitched in with their yearly rankings, and TYLA was voted the best debut album release in 2024, ranked 6th overall in their ranking system.

On the 1st of December, it was reported that Tyla broke the record for the most weeks at number 1 for a female artist on the UK Afrobeats Song chart, surpassing Tems' previous record of 23 weeks. All this just proved the growing influence of African music all over the world.

"Push 2 Start" is starting to take on a legacy of its own. On the 27th of December 2024, the song reached a new peak on the global Spotify chart. It reached number 113 with a total of 1.517 million streams at the time of writing. It also made the UK Hip Hop and RnB singles chart, where the song peaked at number 7 for several weeks, surpassing her song "Jump," which entered at number 8. "Push 2 Start" is now her second-highest charting song ever.

2024 has well and truly been the year of African music, and Tyla has been at the very forefront of the global takeover that is currently happening in the music industry. Although music organizations such as the Grammys have yet to understand the difference between Afrobeats and Pop music in an African context, let's hope that with more artists coming through, this will change over time.

To conclude, Tyla has won a total of 26 career awards between 2023 and 2024, signalling her arrival on the global music scene.