Tyla's Next Chapter: Inside A*POP, the Album Set to Cement Her Global Reign

hen Tyla released "Water" in 2023, few outside South Africa knew exactly what they were hearing only that they couldn't stop listening. The song's slow-burning blend of amapiano rhythms and polished global pop felt like something genuinely new, and it spread accordingly. Now, barely two years later, the 24-year-old is preparing to release her second studio album, A*POP, on July 24 via Epic Records and the pressure and the anticipation are both running high.

The album was announced officially on April 22, alongside a cinematic trailer in which Tyla appears in a series of striking looks, intercut with words that define what she says the project represents: "unapologetic," "confident," "global." Whether or not those words deliver on their promise, the lead-up to A*POP has already made a strong case that she means every one of them.

From overnight to intentional

Tyla has been candid about how different the making of A*POP has felt compared to her debut. Her 2024 self-titled first album arrived in the middle of a whirlwind "overnight craziness," as she described it to Rolling Stone earlier this year and was largely assembled under pressure rather than designed with full creative control. The follow-up has been a different experience entirely. Recording sessions took place across Los Angeles and Barcelona, with Tyla describing the process as one that allowed her to "dive into things and try whatever," pushing against her own perfectionist instincts.

"I feel like I just did something really fresh and so Tyla. Making something is so fun, and seeing it through from beginning to end I love building the world around things."

The result, she says, is an album that feels lived-in. "I feel like the first album, it was a rush," she told Rolling Stone in February, the night she won her second Grammy. "Now that I'm settled in, I feel like I know more about my direction and what I want to do, what I want to say." That sense of settled confidence is perhaps the most important thing she brings into A*POP the difference between an artist reacting to a moment and one who is actively shaping it.

The singles so far

A*POP — Key Tracks Ahead of Release

01

Chanel

Lead single · Billboard Afrobeats #1 · Hot 100 peak #15 · 17 weeks charting

02

She Did It Again (feat. Zara Larsson)

Released April 17, 2026 · directed by Aerin Moreno

03

Is It

Previously released on Tyla+ deluxe edition · confirmed on A*POP tracklist

"Chanel," the album's lead single, gave the clearest early signal of the direction A*POP would take. Released last year, it became her third Hot 100 entry and spent 17 weeks on the chart, reaching number one on both the Billboard Afrobeats and Rhythmic Airplay rankings. The follow-up, "She Did It Again" a collaboration with Swedish pop star Zara Larsson arrived on April 17 and has been received with similar enthusiasm, building on a friendship between the two artists that was on full display when Tyla presented Larsson with the Breakthrough Award at the Billboard Women in Music event on April 29.

Two Grammys and counting

The hardware has kept pace with the momentum. Tyla won her first Grammy in 2024 for Best African Music Performance the award's inaugural year for "Water." Earlier this year, she collected a second Grammy in the same category for "Push 2 Start," a hit from her deluxe edition that she described as having felt "special" from the moment she finished recording it. Her debut album also made history as the highest-charting project by an African female soloist on the Billboard 200.

Grammy — Best African Music Performance 2024

Grammy — Best African Music Performance 2026

Highest-charting African female soloist, Billboard 200

Hot 100 entries: Water · Push 2 Start · Chanel

What A*POP means

There is a broader significance to what Tyla is attempting with A*POP that goes beyond chart performance or awards tallies. She is not simply an African artist with crossover appeal she is now operating as a central figure in mainstream global pop, collaborating with Scandinavian songwriters, releasing through a major American label, and building an audience that spans continents. The album's title itself is a statement of intent: A*POP is not genre-specific, and it is not regionally defined. It is a declaration that African pop in whatever form Tyla chooses to express it belongs at the centre of the conversation.

Whether A*POP lives up to that ambition won't be known until July 24. But the groundwork two Grammys, three chart hits, and an artist who sounds genuinely excited about what she has made suggests that when the album finally arrives, it will be worth the wait.