The South African native, who rose to fame with her mega-viral hit 'Water', explains why she isn't too flattered being compared to the Fenty Beauty founder although it's such a 'compliment' for her.
- May 2, 2024
AceShowbiz - Tyla was not too flattered being compared to [Rihanna]. While she admitted that the comparisons are such a compliment, the "Water" hitmaker insisted that she's her own artist.
The 22-year-old addressed the matter in her Cosmopolitan cover story published Tuesday, April 30. "Rihanna is Rihanna. It's a compliment," she said. "But at the same time, I'm my own artist. I'm Tyla. And I know as people get to know me and my music, they will see me as just Tyla. So I'm fine with it now."
"People want to tie me to something familiar to them, cool," the South African native continued. "But at the end of the day, we're doing something no one's done before, and it can't really be compared to anyone."
Tyla rose to fame with her mega-viral hit "Water", which landed at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January. On March 22, the musician dropped her self-titled debut album that features collaborations with Tems and Travis Scott (II) among others.
Tyla announced her debut album in late February. At the time, she made use of her Instagram account to share the good news. In the caption of her post, she simply wrote, "Pre-order link in bio. TYLA - 22nd MARCH."
In the same post, Tyla put out a video to promote the project. In the clip, it could be seen that she was making her way into a CD and vinyl record store. Once she got inside the store, she was documented looking for the cd and vinyl of her set.
Of her NSFW song "Water", Tyla admitted to Cosmopolitan, "My mom was the person that saved me because my father was like, 'What are you singing about?' " She added, "I was like, 'Nah, it's nothing bad, Dad. It's just carefree fun.' He's like, 'Oh, okay.' And my mother was the person being like, 'Relax, relax. Relax.' "
