After racking up nearly 2 million views independently and receiving glowing early praise from i-D, PAPER Magazine, and more, South African singer and songwriter Tyla has inked a global deal with Epic Records.
The 19-year-old shot to fame when she confidently remixed her sweet voice with a hypnotic amapiano sound in “Getting Late”, which featured Kooldrink.
Her pouncing cat and gwara gwara dance move hooked fans as she amassed over one million combined streams.
In just over a month, the music video racked up over 930K YouTube views and spawned reels of TikTok content – a platform where Tyla is rapidly rising, with over 726K followers and over 10.6 million likes.
Oh her signing, Tyla said: “This really is a dream come true! I had no plan B, so this is something I invested my everything into and I could not be more satisfied.
“To be welcomed into the Epic family like this, it’s such an honour, I’m so grateful for everyone who believes in me.
“My team at FAX and I worked so hard to get here and I’m super excited to keep growing with them and take it to the top.
“Sylvia and Epic share our vision, we want to make great art and bring the world’s attention back home to Africa.
“I cannot wait to share what we have with the world.”
Epic Records chairwoman and chief executive Sylvia Rhone commented, “Tyla has all the qualities of a true career superstar. At the same time, there’s never been an artist quite like her.
“She’s become a star in Africa on her own terms, and now she’s going to redefine the sound of pop music worldwide.
“We’re so excited to welcome her to the Epic Records family.”
Taking to Instagram, Tyla said that representing her South African roots was important to her.
“When I sang the words to ’Getting Late’ for the first time, I never imagined it would become the song that made my dreams come true.
“Representing my roots as a South African in the international industry is very important to me. With other African creatives, I wanna bring Africa to the world and the world to Africa”, she said.
Growing up of Indian, Zulu, Mauritian, Irish descent, Tyla instinctively understood the power of diversity as a child in Joburg.
She spent countless hours honing her voice at home, singing with her siblings every Sunday as part of a weekly tradition.
At the same time, her dad introduced her to R&B and soul, encouraging her to eventually experiment with styles and cultures.
By high school, she began posting covers on Instagram before catching the attention of her manager and creative director Garth von Glehn.