All about Tyla: Age, height, ethnicity, parents, and full biography
Tyla, dubbed the Queen of Popiano, is one of the few female artists from Africa to achieve global superstar status. She started as a social media sensation in mid-2023 through the Water Challenge, and within months, she was a Billboard charting and Grammy-winning artist. This article delves into Tyla's age and the background that has defined her path to stardom.
Source: Getty Images
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The Popiano star started singing at a young age while attending school in Johannesburg. Tyla's family was originally against her plans to pursue music professionally, but they are currently her biggest supporters.
Tyla's profile summary
| Full name | Tyla Laura Seethal |
| Nickname | Queen of Popiano |
| Date of birth | January 30, 2002 |
| Age | 22 years old in 2024 |
| Birth sign | Aquarius |
| Place of birth | Edenvale, Gauteng, South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Ethnicity | Mixed Indian, Mauritian, Zulu, and Irish |
| Height | 5 feet 3 inches (1.6 m/160 cm) |
| Weight | 54 kg (119 pounds) |
| Gender | Female |
| Sexual orientation | Straight |
| Relationship status | Single (as of 2024) |
| Parents | Sharleen and Sherwin Seethal |
| Siblings | Four |
| Education | Edenglen High School |
| Profession | Singer-songwriter |
| Genre | Amapiano, pop, R&B |
| Years active | 2019 to date |
| Record label | Sony Music (since 2023) |
| Social media | InstagramX (Twitter)YouTubeTikTokFacebook |
| Website | tylaworld.com |
How old is Tyla?
The Water hitmaker is 22 years old as of 2024. She was born on January 30, 2002, and her zodiac sign is Aquarius.
Where is Tyla from?
Tyla's nationality is South African. She was born and raised in Johannesburg, Gauteng province. She often references the city in her songs.
What is Tyla's real name?
The singer's real name is Tyla Laura Seethal. She is known mononymously as Tyla, which she adopted as her stage name.
Source: Original
How tall is Tyla?
Tyla's height is 5 feet 3 inches (1.6 m/160 cm), which she mentioned in a 2020 TikTok video using rapper Nicki Minaj's voice. She weighs around 54 kg (119 pounds).
What ethnicity is Tyla Seethal?
Tyla's ethnicity is mixed with Indian, Zulu, Mauritian, and Irish roots. The singer refers to her multiracial identity as Coloured, which is a common term in South Africa for mixed-race individuals.
She has received backlash for using the term, with a section of people saying she was denying her Blackness. In the US, the culture recognizes anyone with part Black heritage as Black regardless of other roots that they may have.
The term Coloured has a painful history that dates back to the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, which is similar to SA's apartheid rule. In June 2024, the singer took to X (Twitter) to set the record straight.
Never denied my Blackness, I don't know where that came from. I'm mixed with black/Zulu, Irish, Mauritian/Indian and Coloured. In Southa, I would be classified as a Coloured woman and other places I would be classified as a black woman. Race is classified differently in different parts of the world.
Source: Getty Images
Tyla's parents
The Girl Next Door singer is the daughter of Sharleen and Sherwin Seethal. Tyla shared during a January 2024 interview with 102.7 KIIS FM that her parents were initially against the idea of her pursuing music instead of getting a normal job.
My parents were like, 'You have to study. There's no way you are doing music. Like it's not realistic - You need to work. This can be a hobby.' I almost had to do it, but then, like every day, I would just cry on my mother's bed and be like, 'Please just give me one year.' And because I was a year younger, luckily, they were like, 'You are like a year younger; you can have one year.'
After Laura proved to her parents that music was worth it, they have been supportive of her career. In February 2024, they attended the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, where their daughter won a Grammy for Best African Music Performance.
Source: Getty Images
Is Tyla's dad Indian?
The singer's dad, Sherwin Seethal, has Indian roots and hails from Mauritius, an East African island country. Her mother, Sharleen, is a South African native of Zulu heritage with Irish ancestry.
Tyla's education
The Grammy-winning singer attended Edenglen High School in Johannesburg, where she graduated in 2019. She later enrolled to study mining engineering but because of her busy schedule, she told BBC in January 2024 that she is still in her gap year.
Tyla's siblings
The Butterflies hitmaker has four siblings, including three sisters and a brother. She is the middle child. Her older sister is named Whitney, while her younger brother is called Tyrese.
The singer's other younger sister, Sydney, is a social medial influencer and occasionally makes TikTok videos with Tyla. The two even have a YouTube channel called Sydney and Tyla.
Source: UGC
How did Tyla become famous?
Tyla first gained recognition in SA in 2019 following the release of her debut single, Getting Late. Her rise as a self-titled Popiano artist got her a record deal with Epic in 2021.
Her international breakthrough came in 2023 with the release of her hit song, Water. The Water Challenge, which went viral on TikTok, started in August 2023 when she performed in Kigali, Rwanda, as a RADAR artist during the Spotify X Giants of Africa festival.
Water currently has over 242.5 million views on YouTube and over 833.4 million streams on Spotify. She has also released hits like Jump, Truth or Dare, On My Body, and ART. She released her debut album, Tyla, in March 2024 and a deluxe edition of her album called Tyla+ in October 2024.
Laura has won several awards, including a Grammy and two BET Awards. She calls her unique sound Popiano, which features a fusion of pop, R&B, Amapiano, and Afro beats. In her Apple Music profile, she reveals that she wanted to create fresh sound but still retain the richness of African music.
The roots of my sound are in Amapiano music, in South African and African music - Since I started experimenting with Amapiano, I just feel like it's really helped me get to this point where I created something that is fresh and new, but still familiar and comes from home. It's a sound of Africa, and it's something that I couldn't be more proud about.
Source: Getty Images
At Tyla's age of 22, she is living the dream of many upcoming artists. Her rise has been quick, and because she is bringing a fresh sound to the global scene, fans cannot wait for what she has in store.
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