Tyla Secures Grammy No. 2 – But Do the Grammys Get African Music at All?
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- February 6, 2026
South Africa’s Tyla has just won her second Grammy Award, taking home Best African Music Performance at the 68th Grammy Awards for her hit single “Push 2 Start”, a standout from her debut album released in 2024. The win makes her the first artist to win the category twice since its introduction in 2024, and once again, she has put South Africa on the world map.
The song, praised for blending Pop, R&B, and Amapiano, has already proven its global power, after dominating online and scooping the Afrobeats category at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards. This year, she beat heavyweights including Burna Boy, Davido ft Omah Lay, Eddy Kenzo, Mehran Matin, and Ayra Starr ft Wizkid.
Tyla is winning. No debate. But her win also reopened a bigger conversation, one that African music fans have been raising for years: Do the Grammys actually know what “African music” is?
A Big Win… Quietly Announced
Here’s the uncomfortable part: Tyla’s win didn’t make the main televised Grammy broadcast.
The award was announced during the premiere ceremony, the pre-show, where many categories are handed out away from the global spotlight. For a category supposedly designed to celebrate African excellence, that kind of sidelining feels like a contradiction.
Backstage, Tyla didn’t hide her disappointment.
“I’m so mad. Like, I almost made it.”
That one sentence said everything.
2026 Grammys: See The Full Winners & Nominees List
“African Music” Is Not One Sound
Africa has 54 recognised countries, thousands of languages, and countless musical traditions. Yet the Grammys’ approach still flattens all of that into one label.
The category claims to represent subgenres like:
– Afrobeats
– Afro-fusion
– Alté
– Amapiano
– Genge
– Fuji
– Ghanaian drill
– Afro-house
– South African hip-hop
– Ethio-jazz
…but the nominations have consistently leaned toward the most globally marketable sounds, and mostly from Nigeria and South Africa, the continent’s two biggest commercial music hubs.
That doesn’t mean the winners aren’t deserving. It means the system is narrow.
What This Means For Amapiano
Tyla’s win is also a major moment for Amapiano, whether the Grammys fully acknowledge it or not.
Because even though “Push 2 Start” is Pop-coded, its bounce, rhythm, and groove carry amapiano DNA, and the world is listening. Every global award that comes through with a South African sound attached to it strengthens amapiano’s position as more than a “trend”.
It reinforces the truth we already know:
Amapiano is global music now.
And for the new generation of SA artists, producers, and dancers, Tyla’s win is a signal: the world isn’t just consuming the culture, it’s rewarding it too.
The Bottom Line
For Tyla, her team, and South Africa, this is a powerful win, one that deserves to be celebrated loudly. She continues to represent the country with excellence, and with every global milestone she reaches, she opens doors for a new generation of African artists.
And beyond the trophy, moments like this remind the world of something important: African music is not a side story, it’s a global force. As the sound continues to travel, the hope is that African artists will be recognised not only in dedicated categories, but across the biggest stages and the biggest awards too.
We, as The Yanos Plug, celebrate Tyla, and we celebrate the culture.
PLEASE ALSO READ: TYLA’S VMA WIN: A HISTORIC BITTERSWEET MILESTONE FOR AFRICAN MUSIC
