The awards were given for the 40th time, in an event that took place on September 11, 2024 at the UBS Arena in New York in the United States of America.
Tyla won the 'Best Afrobeat Song Of The Year' award for her song 'Water'. After winning this award, he expressed his happiness but asked the organizers of these awards to mix all African styles instead of focusing only on Afrobeat styles.
He said, "I know there is still a tendency to treat all African artists as Afrobeat artists, although Afrobeat opened doors for us but African music has grown a lot with other styles, now I am from South Africa and I represent the piano style ."
Tyla's statement was not well received by Afrobeat makers and followers especially those in Nigeria where Afrobeat originated.
One of Nigeria's leading journalists Do2tun criticized Tyla for accepting this Afrobeats award at VMA 2024 if he feels his song is not Afrobeat.
Do2tun went on to say that Tyla's song is in the Afrobeat genre rather than piano. He said, "Water is not a piano, if you thought you were put in a category you didn't deserve to be in, you would reject it or return the award you were given."
African music watchers said that Tyla's statement appears to be the conclusion of an open war between the piano genre that originated in South Africa and the Nigerian Afrobeat.
Tyala won the award for 'Best Afrobeat Song Of The Year' at the (MVA) featuring top artists including Burna boy, Davido, Ayra starr, Chris Brown, Usher and others.
