Tyla Ethnicity: South African Singer's Identity Becomes the Center of Debate on Social Media — Here's Why

Tyla became a successful artist almost overnight after her song "Water" took over social media. Now that her music has reached the international scene, the musician appeared to be the center of a debate recently as people have been debating over the term she used to describe her ethnicity.

According to Complex, the singer, whose full name is Tyla Laura Seethal, is from Johannesburg, South Africa. People online have shared their mixed reactions as they discovered that she doesn't identify as "Black."

Her song "Water" was a massive success as it already reached the Billboard Hot 100 placing 18th and it even got nominated at the 2024 Grammy Awards under the category of Best African Music.

However, some fans were shocked that the musician used the term "Coloured" to describe her identity instead of "Black."

The term "Coloured" is used by South African people to describe those people who have mixed ethnic backgrounds.

Tyla Becomes the Center of Debate Because of Using the Term 'Coloured'

The outlet noted that the term "colored" has a different explanation in the United States or in Western culture.

Decades ago, the Jim Crow era used the word to segregate people in a way of racist categorization, and it is the possible reason why some people were not in favor of Tyla's term.

A TikTok user named Simone Umba opened up the topic and sparked mixed reactions from internet users as she corrected the singer for the usage of the word and told her that she is Black.

"This is a miseducation... Baby, colored is what they called Black people before they got rights in this country," she said.

What is Tyla's Ethnicity?

Tyla spoke in an interview with Breakroom Africa in 2021 where she revealed that she grew up in a Coloured home and because of that, she was heavily-influenced with the old school R&B genre and it was one of her inspirations in her music.

Regarding her ethnicity, the musician revealed that her relatives are of Indian, Zulu, and Mauritian descent.

As of this writing, Tyla has yet to address the recent issue about her.

In other updates, the singer told Billboard that she's currently working on her debut EP and fans should expect "more bangers." Although the project will be short, she considers it as "sweet."

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