Phrasemaker

The Grammy Award-winning South African songstress is best known for her hit single ‘ Water.’ Tyla’s ascension has been nothing short of meteoric. Her self-titled debut album was released in 2024. Aside from the smash ‘ Water,’ the record features relatively successful singles such as ‘ Truth or Dare’ and ‘Jump.’ The latter includes verses from rapper Gunna and dancehall artist Skillibeng. Tyla went on to acquire career milestone after career milestone, including performing at the BET Awards and Coachella. However, the international festival circuit wasn’t enough for her famished fans, affectionately known as tygers. So Tyla released an appetizer, the EP WWP (We Wanna Party). Standouts from the project include the diss track adjacent ‘ Mr. Media’ and the infectious ‘ Chanel.’ Whilst ‘ Chanel’ continues to perform well on the charts (currently No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 but peaked at 53), Tyla took to Instagram to tease her sophomore album.

The post is simple enough: a carousel of laptop photo booth pictures set to ‘December Bimbo’ by Q2K, Beko with Da Fatty, and BarbieSZN. Innocuous and not out of the ordinary for Tyla, the caption is what really turned heads, reading “#T2 OHHHH OHHHH.” Since her debut, the 23-year-old singer has been an ambassador for amapiano. A genre of house music that originated in South Africa. A true champion of the genre, she’s collaborated with numerous amapiano DJs such as Tony Duardo, ShaunMusiq, and DJ Lag. Pushing the culture but doing it on her terms, Tyla loves to blend genres and create music she calls “pop-piano.” “pop-piano.” Staying true to her roots seems to be the key to her success.

In terms of what the new album will sound like, Tyla followed up the post with a video revealing a bit more. “Fun” is the operative word, although she has stated there will be some depth to the record. Knowing Tyla, a dance challenge or two to go along with new music is a given. So we’ll be brushing up on our moves whilst we wait.