Tyla Brings Her Amapiano Pop Revolution To North America

It's undeniable: Tyla is the face of amapiano. The 22-year-old Johannesburg singer established her pop-star status with last year's "Water," a Top 10 Billboard hit that brought the South African house subgenre to the masses. There are multiple reasons for its crossover success, not least of which is her unrelenting attitude towards becoming a household name. Concomitant to such strategizing is that her brand of amapiano is less concerned with winding, longform dance numbers — as is typical for her contemporaries — than bite-sized pop songs attuned to Western R&B.

In listening to her phenomenal self-titled debut from earlier this year, I'm regularly transfixed by how it feels like a global album. "Safer," the first full song on the LP, owes its moody vocal harmonies to Nigerian singer Asake, an artist who elevated Afropiano (Afrobeats x amapiano) to a style that transcended simple genre mashing. Guest features on Tyla include Gunna, Tems, Skillibeng, Travis Scott, and Becky G. "Priorities" could be a Kehlani track.

The biggest question on my mind while entering Chicago's Thalia Hall Wednesday night is how Tyla will perform at the height of a career that ballooned so quickly. Earlier this year, she canceled dozens of concerts and festival appearances due to an injury, and this performance — an official Lollapalooza aftershow — marks her first concert since Tyla dropped. Everyone who bought a ticket was told the show would start at 7:30pm. It wasn't explained, however, that there'd be an opener, but as I walk up the venue's stairs, I see a chalkboard drawing noting that Nigerian DJ, producer, and Tyla collaborator Spinall is here.