Tyla Addresses Rihanna Comparisons: “It’s A Compliment”

As Tyla‘s career evolves, fans have drawn comparisons between the South African singer and Bajan pop star Rihanna. Of course, the 22-year-old is aware of the comments and in a new interview, detailed her true feelings about being mentioned in conversations with the billionaire musician.

In her response, Tyla showed appreciation for the precedents set by everyone’s favorite Bad Gal, however, is confident and determined to carve her own lane.

“It’s flattering because Rihanna is Rihanna. It’s a compliment. But at the same time, I’m my own artist,” explained the “Water” star to Cosmopolitan as its latest cover star. “I’m Tyla. And I know as people get to know me and my music, they will see me as just Tyla. So I’m fine with it now. People want to tie me to something familiar to them, cool.”

She continued, “But at the end of the day, we’re doing something no one’s done before, and it can’t really be compared to anyone.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the Grammy Award winner discussed additional inspirations to her music career.

“I love my gran so much. She would always tell us stories about being a singer and how she would have to basically sing to support her family. She’d take long bus rides to competitions and win. All those stories always inspired me and made me work harder to get to where I want to be years from now,” reflected the “Art” performer.

Earlier this year, the chart-topper released her self-titled debut album. Blending sounds from multiple genres including amapianoand R&B, the project features Kelvin Momo, Tems, Gunna, Skillibeng, Becky G, and Travis Scott.

“I always wanted this album to be my introduction to the world. And I feel like this is the best introduction I could have made. It’s me in music form, packaging into a 14-track project. TYLA was the only title that made sense for this one,” she explained to GRAMMY.com.

Listen to TYLA below.