The driving catalyst behind her success has been the popularity of her single, “Water,” and how ubiquitous the viral hit has become across the internet.

“Water,” a blissfully catchy combination of pop, hip-hop, R&B and Amapiano (South African house music), initially dropped in July. Since then, the song garnered massive popularity on TikTok after Tyla began posting videos of herself dancing to and performing the song on her account. From there, she invited her followers to follow suit. 

According to Time, as of Oct. 6, the #TylaWater and #TylaWaterChallenge hashtags have gained 448.6 million views, and over 500,000 dance videos on the app feature the song. On TikTok’s Viral 50 chart, the track sits at No. 9.

“Usually, this dance style is not paired with this type of music, but I felt it would fit so well,” Tyla told Time. “We ended up trying this, and it looked so good that we started performing it with water.”

The Bacardi South African dance inspired the dance routine, which stems from Amapiano. According to Cosmopolitan, Lee-ché Janecke, Tyla’s choreographer, created the original version of the dance featured in the challenge. 

On Thursday, Tyla dropped the “Water” music video. After being on YouTube for only three days, she’s already amassed 3.1 million views. Following the song’s success, she plans to drop an EP in November.

“There’s a lot of moments in the video that people will catch on like the flower that I’m wearing and how it’s from the challenge. There’s a lot of things that came with the song that we incorporated in the video.”

According to tweets from Chart Data, “Water” has reached No. 10 on the U.K. singles chart and earned Tyla her first spot on the Billboard Hot 100 as the song debuted at No. 67.

Billboard Hot 100: #67(new) Water, Tyla (@Tylauraa).

— chart data (@chartdata) October 9, 2023

Additionally, Tyla has become the first South African artist to gain 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

With “Water,” Tyla is on the verge of becoming a household name.