SA Grammy Award winning Pop star, Tyla has sought to address the controversy surrounding her racial identity.
Last year, she sparked a debate on the socials after explaining that she grew up identifying as “Coloured.’’
While the term is used to refer to a mixed racial person in Mzansi, it may be considered as derogatory or as a racial slur in the US.
Black Americans accused the Pop sensation of trying to distance herself from her true identify, but South Africans came to her defence and encouraged her to continue owning her truth.
Recently, Tyla came out to set the record straight in a post on X.
“Yho guys.
I never denied my blackness, idk where that came from. I’m mixed with black/Zulu, Irish, Mauritian/Indian and Coloured.
In South Africa 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.
I don’t expect to be identified as Coloured outside of Southa by anyone not comfortable doing so, because I understand the weight of that word outside of SA, but to close this conversation, I’m both Coloured in South Africa and a black woman.
With that being said, Asambee,’’ explained Tyla.
Despite this controversy, the 22-year-old will be gunning for the BET Viewer’s Choice Award, alongside icons like Beyonce, Drake and Chris Brown.
Tyla continues to top the charts with her Jump music video, which came out second on YouTube’s trend list only nine days after its release.
The song hit over 77 million streams on Spotify, placing it third after her hit singles, Truth or Dare and Water.
