Tyla is at the top of her game.
After winning a Grammy and releasing her debut album earlier this year, the South African singer, 22, won her first MTV VMA Award for Best Afrobeats Video for her global hit “Water” on Sept. 11 — and almost didn’t go to the awards show !
“I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to go, because I don’t know how it’s going to go.’ But then I said, ‘Let me go because I want to look cute on the red carpet,'” Tyla tells PEOPLE at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards. “It was a very special moment for me and for African music.”
Tyla Says Her Grammy Win Is ‘Such A Big Moment’ For South Africa As She Releases Debut Album (Exclusive)
Tyla wears Bose’s ultra-open headphones.
Courtesy of Bose
During the ceremony at New York’s UBS Arena, the “Jump” singer was featured in a Bose commercial for the brand’s Ultra Open Earbuds alongside LISA, Central Cee and Don Toliver. The ad takes viewers into each artist’s green room, where they use headphones as each prepares to perform.
“It was nice to be able to do it together,” Tyla says of working with fellow musicians on the campaign. “It felt really cool knowing I was doing it with my peers, and it was focused on the music. It wasn’t just an advertisement.”
The unique cuff-like headphones are made for anyone who wants to listen to music and stay aware of their surroundings at the same time. “I like that it doesn’t look weird on the eye and I just like that you can talk at the same time,” explains the Bose partner. “You’re not completely in your own world.”
Tyla wasn’t worried that her diamond necklaces would make it difficult to eat at the Met Gala: ‘It just looks cute!’ (Exclusive)
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Tyla, whose first single is out in 2019, may still be a newcomer to the mainstream music world, but now she’s got plenty of green rooms of her own — and she knows the must-haves on her backstage rider.
“I have a Le Labo candle, I have ginger, I have Tabasco sauce, I have pineapple juice. I love pineapple juice so much,” she says. “When I can, a few champions, but mostly to celebrate. I like to drink champagne after a good performance and share it with the dancers and crew. But I don’t have any crazy stuff yet.”
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Tyla wears Bose’s ultra-open headphones.
Courtesy of Bose
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One thing Tyla definitely can’t go without before a show that she might want to avoid right now if she had the choice? A glass of H2O.
After the huge success of “Voda”, it became a bit awkward to order a basic drink. “Restaurants, interviews, everywhere I go, people find it strange to offer me water,” he says with a laugh. “That’s the thing now. If someone offers me water, I just think in my head, ‘OK, this again’.”
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Source: HIS Education