Tyla’s recent shows in the Middle East could come to be seen as a pivotal moment in her rise to pop stardom.
The South African singer’s short run through the Gulf, with major performances at Riyadh’s Soundstorm and Dubai’s Sole DXB, within the space of four days, offered a clear measure of where she now sits in her career. More importantly, it showed that she can step up from supporting slots on international festival line-ups to carrying the main stage herself.
As her billing rises and her audiences grow, the question is no longer whether she belongs on global festival line-ups, but whether her music and stage presence deliver on such scale. Her shows in the region also reflected the rise of amapiano itself. It is a sound that began bubbling through UAE clubs around 2020 and has steadily moved into larger venues and festival settings.
In that sense, Tyla’s Gulf appearances felt less like isolated concerts and more like snapshots of a remarkable transition for both performer and the genre.
Tyla in Dubai
Headlining the second day of the annual Sole DXB event in Dubai, Tyla was the three-day event's gravitational force – drawing perhaps the event's largest crowd and earning screams reserved for only the biggest artists.
Those screams came primarily from young women – showing that the singer has become one of Gen Z's defining cultural avatars. This was largely made possible through the birth of streaming, which decentralised music and allowed styles not favoured by major Western record labels to gain organic purchase with an audience across the world. As a result, Tyla doesn't need Western validation – she's a multicultural star all her own.
And her presentation, though sensual, is never geared towards the male gaze, nor any overt, commodified version of female empowerment. Rather, she reflects women of the TikTok age, where overt presentation of beauty is primarily for the consumption of other women such as herself – and songs such as Chanel become anthems for the 'princess treatment' demands of her generation: “Say you love me, put me in Chanel”.
She doesn't quite have an intricately produced big-budget stadium tour show, but her message resonates on that level and her skill set means she is ready when the moment comes.
Tyla in Riyadh
Before Sole DXB was Soundstorm in Riyadh on Thursday, where Tyla stepped on to the festival’s main stage for her largest Gulf appearance to date.
When The National interviewed her two years ago, she was playing to a smaller but still well-received crowd in an afternoon slot in the Big Slap festival in Malmo, Sweden.
At Soundstorm, she closed the main performances at the Park Stage. Backed by well-drilled dancers, her set leaned heavily on material that has defined her rise so far.
Breakout single Water continued to draw a strong response, built around that implacably steady amapiano groove. Truth or Dare and Art were more mood-led affairs, shaped by percussive ad-libs and nods to 1990s-era R & B. New single Chanel had Tyla back in her amapiano pocket, only this time framed by the sleek production that comes with an increasingly bigger budget.
That development was also reflected in her stage presence. She appeared more assured, and her banter with the crowd, never masking that bright South African drawl, was warm without becoming overly revealing.
Comparisons to Rihanna will continue to follow her. At 23, Tyla is the same age Rihanna was when she released Loud in 2010.
The difference is in the voice. Rihanna, at that point, was refining a style full of Caribbean-inflected swagger, delivered with a colder precision, while Tyla’s style is sultrier and more vulnerable, giving her room to do more interesting things with it.
