What is Tyla’s ethnicity? Singer releases statement addressing “Colored” Vs. “Black” controversy

On June 13, South African singer and songwriter Tyla Laura Seethal, who mononymously identifies as Tyla, appeared as a guest on the iHeartRadio show The Breakfast Club.

The host, Charlamagne Tha God, asked her about her ethnic identity and what it means to be a “South African Colored person.” In response, Tyla turned to her alleged publicist, who said, “Can we not? Por favor? Next one, please,” while she sat silently, smiling.

In the wake of this, Black Americans took issue with her pleading the fifth. They called out Tyla for not clarifying her ethnicity or taking the opportunity to educate people on what it means to be a South African “colored” individual. Some even said that she was disregarding her Blackness.

However, Tyla broke her silence on the matter later that same day and released a statement on X that read:

“Never denied my Blackness, idk where that came from… I’m mixed with Black/ Zulu, Irish, Mauritian/ Indian and Colored. In Southa, I would be classified as a Colored Woman, and [in] other places I would be classified as a Black woman.”

The Getting Late singer added that “race is classified differently in different parts of the world.”

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Tyla first publicly identified as “colored” in late 2023

In November 2023, Blavity News published an article that claimed that Tyla identifies as “Coloured” and not “Black.” Before that, she also took to her TikTok account to say that she was a “proud colored South African woman.”

The news triggered a debate online, with many users expressing their dismay at the singer for allegedly denying her Black ancestry. Black Americans were especially offended as the term “colored” is now outdated and pejorative in the USA and can historically be traced back to the 1950s Jim Crow era.

However, as per Brittanica, the word in South Africa has a different meaning altogether. It refers to “a person of mixed European (“white”) and African (“Black”) or Asian ancestry,” or simply what the world understands as mixed race.

Also, the term was officially recognized by the South African government between 1950 and 1991 as a social category to differentiate between Blacks and Whites and is still pertinent in their culture.

This means that the “Queen of Popiano” (as she is often dubbed) never denied her Black ethnicity but rather identified as interracial. In fact, following last year's controversy, the BRIT Award nominee explained on TikTok in December while giving herself a Zulu hairstyle (Bantu knots) that she "comes from a lot of different cultures."

For those unaware, Tyla was born on January 30, 2002, to Sharleen and Sherwin Seethal in Edenvale, East Rand, South Africa, and later grew up in Johannesburg. While details about her ethnicity remain undisclosed, she has her roots in Zulu, Indian, Mauritian, and Irish ancestries, as also confirmed by her in her latest statement.

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Tyla urges fans to recognize her as both Colored and Black

On Thursday, Charlamagne Tha God asked Tyla on his radio show, The Breakfast Club, to clarify her ethnicity. However, her representative from behind the camera requested to skip the question and move on to the next one.

While Charlamagne Tha God obliged, he refused to cut the portion from the final interview, stating that the “awkward” moment would remain. Later that day, following more online debates about her silence on her ancestry, the Water songstress decided to set the record straight.

She wrote on X that she never denied her “Blackness” and shared her mixed ethnicity. The 22-year-old further clarified that she was aware that outside South Africa, she would be recognized as “Black” but noted she was okay with it as these things were distinctly defined worldwide.

“I don’t expect to be identified as Colored 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 Colored in South Africa and a Black woman,” she mentioned.

She wrapped up by saying, “As a woman for the culture, it’s and not or… with that being said, ASAMBEEE.”

This is not the first time the Grammy winner has addressed the debate surrounding her ethnicity. Earlier, in April, she sat for a cover story with Cosmopolitan and explained that growing up in South Africa, she knew herself as "Colored," but that didn't mean she denied her "Black" side.

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Tyla is all set to appear at the BET Awards 2024 soon before leaving the USA to perform at the Rolling Loud Thailand Festival 2024.