Tyla won the first-ever Grammy for Best African Music Performance earlier this year, but her debut album will compete in the pop category at the 2025 show.
Tyla's self-titled work was submitted as Best R&B Album, but was awarded Best Pop Vocal Album by the Recording Academy's R&B screening committee, which is made up not of Academy staff members but of artists, producers, songwriters and others considered experts in the field. R&B genre. If nominated in pop – an extremely important category – Tyla it would compete alongside albums like Taylor Swift's The Department of Tortured Poets, Billie Eilish's Hit me hard and softby Sabrina Carpenter Short and sweetBy Ariana Grande Eternal sun and Chappell Roan The rise and fall of a Midwestern princess.
Starting Tyla's album comes as a surprise as the 14-track project has its roots in the South African Amapiano, Afrobeats and R&B genre. Instead of being pushed to pop, his album should compete in the Best Progressive R&B Albums category: a runner-up R&B album award created to highlight R&B-based albums that also infuse other sounds and elements, from rap to dance to pop. SZA's SOS won the honor earlier this year.
Six of the songs from Tyla appeared on Billboard's Hot R&B Songs chart, including the viral hit “Water,” which reached No. 1. “Water” peaked at No. 7 on the all-genre Hot 100 chart and spent 51 weeks atop the US Afrobeat Songs chart.
“Water” won the inaugural Grammy for Best African Musical Performance in February. Tyla It might have been nominated for Best World Music Album – where most of the Afrobeat artists presented their albums including Burna Boy, Tems and Ayra Starr – but Best Progressive R&B Album seems like the best home for the project, from the point of view sonically. Tyla features collaborations with Travis Scott, Tems, Gunna, Becky G and Skillibeng.
The enthusiasm for pop seems like a shock when you see an album like Lizzo's Because I love youwhich was pop but included sounds like R&B, dance, and rap, was nominated for and won Best Progressive R&B Album (formerly named Best Contemporary Urban Album) in 2020. The Grammys also didn't remove Tommy Richman's viral TikTok hit “Million Dollar Baby” from rap, although his team submitted the non-rap song to the rap categories this year. The news was met with criticism on social media, especially because Richman sings on the track and the 24-year-old said he is not a hip-hop artist, although he later clarified his words.
First-round voting for the 2025 Grammys concluded last week. Nominations will be announced on November 8, and final voting will take place from December 12 to January 3. The live show will air on February 2 from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.