Tyla Makes History: South African Sensation Smashes Billboard Hot 100 Record

South African sensation Tyla has vaulted into pop’s top tier just before 2026, scoring her third solo appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 with the shimmering amapiano-R&B crossover “Chanel.” The No. 94 debut makes her the African female artist with the most solo Hot 100 entries, edging past the legendary Miriam Makeba and cementing Tyla’s status as the continent’s newest global record-breaker. “Chanel” follows the double-platinum smash “Water” (peaked at No. 7) and the follow-up “Push 2 Start,” extending a chart run powered less by U.S. radio rotation and more by a viral TikTok dance that has jumped borders from Seoul to São Paulo. The single’s hook—“Say you love me, put me in Chanel”—has become a Gen Z anthem for luxury aspiration, fueling over 2 billion views on the platform in 10 weeks. Tyla’s digital dominance is now translating onstage. In December she graduated from buzzworthy opener to bona-fide headliner, closing Soundstorm in Riyadh and commanding the biggest crowd of Dubai’s street-culture festival Sole DXB with a slick, dancer-backed production that blended amapiano basslines, 90s R&B melodies and high-fashion visuals. Industry bookers say the leap positions her for main-stage slots at Coachella, Glastonbury and AfroNation in 2026. Behind the scenes, the 23-year-old Johannesburg native is polishing a sophomore album slated for mid-2026. Early studio leaks hint at collaborations with Nigerian Afrobeats king Rema and Puerto Rican hitmaker Tainy, signaling a multi-lingual, pan-global soundscape. Label insiders at Epic Records report that Tyla is co-executive-producing the project, determined to keep the airy, percussion-heavy groove that made “Water” a streaming tsunami while expanding into bruising club tempos inspired by Durban gqom. The timing couldn’t be better: Spotify streams for amapiano have exploded 450 percent worldwide since 2022, and Shazam data shows Tyla is the genre’s most searched artist every week since October. Music-trend analysts credit her success with unlocking new playlists for African women in mainstream pop, a lane previously dominated by Afrobeats men. What’s next? • A North American “Chanel Nights” club tour kicks off in Miami on February 7, hitting 12 cities with 1,500-cap rooms that routinely sell out on presale. • A luxury partnership with the French fashion house behind her latest single is rumored for Paris Fashion Week; insiders expect a limited-edition capsule line of pastel leather bags. • Billboard forecasts place “Chanel” inside the Hot 100 Top 40 by late January if current streaming trends hold, potentially giving Tyla her second U.S. Top 10 before her 24th birthday. For young listeners worldwide, Tyla’s rise is bigger than charts; it’s a cultural signal that the amapiano wave has fully crashed into the mainstream. For the music industry, her record-breaking year forces a simple question: how high can she climb before the album drops?