South African singer Tyla made history at the 2026 Grammy Awards, becoming the first artist to win the Best African Music Performance category twice.
Tyla secured the award for her hit single “Push 2 Start,” which was released in 2024 and featured on the deluxe edition of her self-titled debut album.
The song was a massive hit, racking up over 440 million streams on Spotify and 136 million views on YouTube, and cementing its place as one of the biggest streaming successes of the year for an African artist.
READ ALSO:
Tyla beat out strong competition from Burna Boy’s “Love,” Davido’s “With You” featuring Omah Lay, Eddy Kenzo and Mehran Matin’s “Hope & Love,” and Ayra Starr’s “Gimme Dat” featuring Wizkid.
The Best African Music Performance award, introduced by the Recording Academy in 2024, “recognizes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent, highlighting regional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic musical traditions.”
It’s worth noting that the award category aims to acknowledge and amplify diverse genres and composers of African music, rather than just focusing on popular songs.