Last year, South African singer Tyla achieved international recognition with her hit single “Water,” which marked a significant milestone in her career. The song garnered widespread attention and, earlier this year, won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance. However, despite this early success, Tyla has now found herself at the center of a Grammy Awards category controversy, which has become a subject of debate in the music industry.
Tyla released her self-titled debut album around the same time as this year’s Grammy submissions, and her team initially aimed to have the album considered in the Best R&B Album category. Tyla’s music is generally categorized under amapiano, a South African genre that blends elements of kwaito, deep house, afrobeats, and R&B, giving her sound a unique and multi-faceted quality. Given this musical foundation, it seemed fitting for the album to be placed in the R&B category.
However, the R&B screening committee—comprised of R&B writers, producers, and performers—reviewed the submission and determined that Tyla’s album does not fit within the boundaries of the R&B genre. As a result, her album was reassigned to the pop category. This decision by the Recording Academy’s R&B branch has sparked a debate regarding genre classifications at the Grammys. Tyla will now be forced to compete in the pop category, which includes prominent and established artists from the global pop music scene.
Critics have pointed out that this reclassification is puzzling, especially considering the commercial success of her R&B-leaning tracks. For example, six tracks from Tyla’s debut album made it onto Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart, with her breakout hit “Water” reaching the #1 spot. This commercial performance suggests that Tyla’s music aligns well with the Best Progressive R&B Category, a category that encompasses contemporary, experimental, and genre-blending R&B records. In fact, her sound has been compared to that of SZA, who won the Best Progressive R&B Album award this year for her record SOS.
The decision to place Tyla’s album in the pop category has reignited discussions about the Grammy Awards’ genre classifications and the potential limitations these categories impose on artists whose music crosses genre boundaries. For artists like Tyla, whose sound is a fusion of multiple influences, these rigid distinctions can undermine their artistic identity and limit their recognition in genres where their music clearly resonates.
In response to the controversy, Tyla took to Twitter, posting a brief yet telling message: “I make it all,” accompanied by a kissy-face emoji, signaling her versatility as an artist who does not feel confined to one genre. This statement reflects her broader approach to music, which embraces a fusion of styles and influences, challenging the traditional genre classifications that have long been a feature of the Grammy Awards.
Tyla’s situation highlights broader issues within the music industry about how genre boundaries are constructed and who gets to define them. As artists continue to push the limits of traditional categories, this controversy raises important questions about the future of genre classification at prestigious award shows like the Grammys, and how they might need to evolve to reflect the increasingly diverse and fluid nature of contemporary music.
