Tyla Wins Top Afrobeats Awards at 2024 Billboard Music Awards
South African pop star Tyla won two awards at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards (BBMA) held in Los Angeles and broadcast on December 13. She received honors for Top Afrobeats Song and Top Afrobeats Artist, having eight nominations across six categories.
In a pre-recorded acceptance speech, Tyla joked, “Now I must give a whole speech, yoh guys. I did not even know this is all happening, yoh hai, your bad also.” She thanked Billboard, Epic Records, her fans known as Tygers, and her friends and family.
Tyla has previously expressed mixed feelings about winning awards in the Afrobeats category. At the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, where she won Best Afrobeats, she said, “This is just so special, but also bittersweet because I know there’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats. African music is so diverse; it is more than just Afrobeats. I come from South Africa. I represent amapiano and my culture.”
In addition to her wins, Tyla was nominated in several other categories, including Top R&B Artist and Top R&B Female Artist, alongside stars like SZA and Chris Brown. She also performed at the event with artists such as Coldplay and Stray Kids.
US artist Taylor Swift led the night with 10 awards, including Top Artist. Tyla, making her BBMA debut, had the same number of nominations as big names like Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
This year, Tyla also won the first Best African Music Performance award at the Grammys and received multiple BET and MTV EMA awards.
She recently celebrated her self-titled album being certified Gold by the RIAA. After finishing her first South African tour, she has a concert planned for January 18 in Pretoria.
