Tyla was reduced to tears being told to conform to pop music.
The Water hitmaker had viral success with 2023 hit, however, she admits that being pressured into making music that wasn’t authentic to her left her “crying”.
The South African star told Variety: “[Those songs] didn’t feel like me at all. I remember being in my hotel room and my managers were calling me: ‘Come down, we need to cut the song.’ I was crying and thinking, ‘This is not what I want. I didn’t get signed to do this’.
“They had to [coax] me out of that room. But through doing that, I realised how much more I love African music. It made me more persistent in keeping my ideas.”
On recording her breakthrough track, she admitted: “I think back to recording Water, and I couldn’t have been more closed off to the outside world.
“It was just me, my engineer and his pregnant wife in the studio. I used to be so shy.”
Tyla recently admitted she felt “trapped” following the success of Water.
The 23-year-old singer’s life changed overnight thanks to the success of Water.
She recently told The Sun newspaper at an event in London: “For a while, especially last year, I felt so trapped.
“Like, ‘Oh my word, I blew up and I just have to have everything right and everything has to be perfect now because the world is looking.’
“It was kind of stressful for me.”
Tyla recently released We Wanna Party, her debut mixtape, and she relished the experience of being able to “experiment” with new sounds and ideas.
She explained: “I wasn’t planning on doing this. I was just making music at the beginning of the year. It was mainly for an album.
“But as I got closer to summer, I was like, ‘Hey the songs I was making were too good … where are the summer songs?
“We need some summer songs right now’ and I am just too excited to hold on to them. I really just want people to hear it and party to it, and see how I’ve grown through the years and just see who I am now.”
Tyla thinks having “a little bit of arrogance” has helped her navigate the stresses of the music industry.
She said: “I just always knew I had something in me.
“I just always had that kind of peace knowing that this is the life I’m gonna live.
“I don’t let anybody or anything limit me or put me in a box. I think I’m just confident.
“A lot of people say arrogant, but I think everyone needs a little bit of arrogance, especially to make it in this industry and to make people believe in your music.
“If you’re not that proud and you don’t believe in your stuff as strongly as you should, why would someone else?”