Tyla Revisits Coloured Identity Discourse Following Viral Backlash

• Tyla revisited the controversy around her Breakfast Club interview, where she identified as coloured, a term that caused backlash in the US
• The Water hitmaker spoke candidly about navigating her South African cultural identity on an international stage
• Tyla drew on South Africa's apartheid history to explain why the conversation around identity is more layered than it appears

Tyla is not shying away from the hard conversations. The two-time Grammy-winning South African singer sat down with Ebro Darden on The Ebro Show on Apple Music Radio in July 2026 to discuss her sophomore album, A-POP, and to revisit a topic that stirred significant online debate - her coloured identity.

The conversation traced back to her appearance on The Breakfast Club, where Tyla shared that she identifies as coloured, the term used in South Africa to describe people of mixed heritage.

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Her remarks ignited a fierce response online, particularly from Black Americans who flagged the word as deeply offensive due to its historical usage in the United States. Many urged her to retire the term when speaking internationally.

Tyla opens up about the backlash

Rather than dismissing the criticism, the Water hitmaker said the experience was genuinely eye-opening. She explained that growing up in South Africa, her identity as a coloured woman was simply a fact of life, something she had never needed to defend or explain to anyone.

But travelling the world, and reading the responses to that interview, shifted her perspective on how language carries different weight in different places.

"When I learned about what it means here, I thought, 'This is going to be a difficult conversation to have.' In South Africa, we also have a derogatory term, so if someone were to come to our country and say they were that, I get why it would be very triggering."

Tyla was careful to hold both truths at once. She acknowledged that being coloured is rooted in her culture and in the specific context of South Africa, while also affirming her blackness and recognising the painful history that shaped her community.

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"I know that being coloured is my culture and exists in my context. I'm also black; being coloured is something that happened through a lot of pain. South Africa has a very painful history."

The singer did not frame the backlash as an attack, but rather as an opportunity to bridge understanding across cultures. With A-POP now out, Tyla expressed hope that conversations like this one would encourage people to approach cultural difference with curiosity rather than judgement.

Tyla receives her own Bratz doll

In an earlier report, Briefly News shared online reactions to Tyla receiving her own Bratz doll.

The singer revisited her earlier wishes of one day having her personalised version of the iconic fashion doll, and her wish finally came true.

Source: Briefly News