Following her acceptance speech at the 2024 VMA Awards, South African artist Tyla came under fire from Nigerian on-air personality Do2dtun.

Tyla won the Best Afrobeats Award. She was nominated alongside Tems, Ayra Starr, Davido, and Burna Boy.

Despite the genre’s enormous success and impact, Tyla criticised the African artists who are collectively grouped under the Afrobeats umbrella during her speech at the event.

She further claimed to be an Amapiano singer and not Afrobeats.

Reacting to her reply in a series of posts on his X name, Do2dtun criticised her for obtaining an award which didn’t represent her art, considering her Amapiano claim.

“Aunty @tyla aka am not Afrobeats, I am Amapiano,” he wrote. Even if we’ve heard you, your song “Water” isn’t also amapiano. Should you have felt that you were placed in the incorrect category, you ought to have reclaimed the prize or rejected the nomination.

“It’s obvious from your statement that you accepted an award that didn’t represent you or your sound.”