Tyla
South African Amapiano singer; Grammy winner performing at the 2026 World Cup SoFi opening ceremony.
Last refreshed: 21 May 2026
How did Tyla go from a Johannesburg township sound to a Grammy and the World Cup stage in two years?
Timeline for Tyla
- Who is Tyla the singer at the 2026 World Cup?
- Tyla (Tyla Laura Seethal) is a South African Amapiano and Afropop singer known for Water (2023). She won the Grammy for Best African Music Performance in 2024 and is one of six performers at the SoFi Stadium World Cup opening ceremony.Source: Lowdown
- What Grammy did Tyla win?
- Tyla won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards for her song Water (2023).
Background
Tyla (born Tyla Laura Seethal, 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa) is an Amapiano and Afropop singer who achieved global breakthrough with Water (2023), which topped charts in multiple countries and earned her the first Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards. She is one of six performers confirmed by FIFA for the SoFi Stadium opening ceremony on 12 June 2026, alongside fellow African artist Rema, Katy Perry, Lisa, Future and Anitta.
Tyla's rise is emblematic of Amapiano's global breakthrough: the South African genre — characterised by log drum basslines, piano motifs and jazz-influenced improvisation — moved from township origins in Soweto to major international festivals between 2020 and 2024. At 23, she is among the youngest performers ever to win a Grammy.
Her selection at the World Cup ceremony represents both the commercial maturity of the new African pop ecosystem and South Africa's continued cultural export success since the 2010 World Cup hosted on their soil.
