Tyla Recreates Khanyi Mbau’s Iconic Dance During Debut Global Citizen Festival Performance
- Grammy Award-winning South African musician Tyla performed at the Global Citizen Festival 2025
- During her debut performance, Tyla paid homage to multi-talented South African media personality Khanyi Mbau
- Social media users expressed admiration and delight, with commentators praising Tyla's creative nod to Khanyi Mbau
Source: Getty Images
Internationally renowned South African musician Tyla won hearts online after paying homage to multi-talented media personality Khanyi Mbau during her debut performance at the Global Citizen Festival.
From allegedly taking a subtle jab at a globally acclaimed Nigerian icon to halting her debut performance to ensure a fan received immediate medical attention, the record-setting South African Grammy Award winner lit up the Global Citizen Festival 2025 in New York’s Central Park. Tyla, known for her energetic and well-choreographed performances, sparked a flurry of reactions after a snippet of her set at the Global Citizen Festival 2025 on Saturday, 27 September in New York City.
Tyla pays homage to Khanyi Mbau at Global Citizen Festival
X (Twitter) user @sinaking_1 reshared a video of Tyla recreating Khanyi Mbau’s famous dance on stage in the United States. The post was captioned:
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“Tyla doing the Khanyi Mbau dance. Omg she's a natural.”
In the video, Tyla recreated Khanyi Mbau’s throwback clip on stage. The throwback video spawned the Khanyi Core Dance Challenge, which previously took social media by storm.
Watch the video below:
Social media reacts as Tyla honours Khanyi Mbau
South Africans exploded with mixed reactions. While some applauded Tyla for paying homage to Khanyi Mbau, others took jabs at her choreography.
Here are some of the comments:
@kingk24_24 said:
“Tyla has truly bewitched me. She is such a delight. Like that’s our pop star for real.”
@CleopatraDK gushed:
“Love it🙌🏾🙌🏾🔥🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️❤️”
@chirrrv shared:
“The lights put me off.”
Source: Getty Images
Global Citizen Festival 2025 highlights
Meanwhile, Tyla shared the stage with Nigeria’s Ayra Starr and Rema at the 2025 edition of the Global Citizen Festival. Ayra Starr's performance sparked new claims that she was a Tyla copycat.
Renowned actor Hugh Jackman hosted the festival, which also featured performances by international musicians such as Rosé of BlackPink, Shakira, Mariah the Scientist and American rapper Cardi B.
Among the pledges were clean energy for 4.6 million homes in Africa; $280 million (R3.46 billion) to protect 25 million hectares of the Amazon; and over $30 million (R518 million) for access to education in partnership with FIFA, with a record 4.3 million actions to defeat poverty.
Tyla meets Cardi B's family
In more entertainment news, Tyla linked up with Cardi B after the Global Citizen Festival 2025, as reported by Briefly News.
A video of Tyla meeting Cardi B's family days after featuring on a song proved to fans that the musicians' friendship was becoming stronger by the day. On Sunday, 28 September 2025, a Cardi B fan page posted a video of the two superstars at an unknown venue, with the Water hitmaker being introduced to Cardi's kids.
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Source: Briefly News
