SA's Tyla Makes Historic US Billboard Hot 100 Debut

The viral hit Water by 21-year-old South African singer Tyla has made this week’s Billboard Hot 100, after trending for several weeks on TikTok.

It is the first solo song by a South African musician to make it to the US singles chart since jazz legend Hugh Masekela’s 1968 Grazing in the Grass.

“I’m a South African girl born and raised in Johannesburg. This is crazy,” Tyla tweeted on Monday night.

The Amapiano musician’s song debuted at number 67 and has inspired the viral water dance challenge on TikTok, resulting in it being used more than 500,000 times in videos posted on the app.

Amapiano is a South African style of electronic dance music.

The Billboard Hot 100 is the most popular music ranking chart in the US, published each week by Billboard magazine.

Billboard announced Tyla’s entry on Monday night, ahead of the release of this week’s full list on Tuesday.

Water has already broken several other records on Spotify and YouTube.

This article originally appeared on BBC News

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