Tyla jumps on to Barack Obama's 2024 summer playlist

13 August 2024 - 14:49
By Innocentia Nkadimeng
Tyla's song
Image: Tyla/ Instagram Tyla's song "Jump" in Obama's playlist

Award-winning singer and songwriter Tyla Laura Seethal, popularly known as Tyla, has made it onto former US President Barack Obama’s 2024 summer playlist with her hit song Jump from her debut studio album Tyla, which was released in March.

Obama’s playlist, released on Monday, is an annual playlist consisting of a mix of classic and contemporary songs extending across a variety of genres, which he started in 2015.

“With summer winding down, I wanted to share some songs that I’ve been listening to lately — and it wouldn’t be my playlist if it didn’t include an eclectic mix. I hope you find something new to listen to!” Obama wrote in his post.

Tyla joins a star-studded list featuring music icons such as Beyoncé, Jill Scott and The Rolling Stones.

Her song Jump, featuring American rapper Sergio “Gunna” Kitchens and Jamaican artist Emwah “Skillibeng” Warmington, is a bouncy Afro-trap track that has garnered significant streams, with over 24.9-million monthly listeners on Spotify and 22-million views on YouTube. The song has also had a run on the TikTok Billboard 50, where it peaked at No 11 in April, inspiring thousands of social media trends.

Tyla opens the song with the lyrics, “they never had a pretty girl from Joburg, see me now and that's what they prefer”, representing her hometown, Johannesburg. In her chorus, the singer highlights how her journey has taken her from Jozi to Ibiza.

Obama's recognition comes after the success of her album, which features four other singles, including the Grammy-winning track Water, the song that gained her international recognition. At the age of 22, Tyla became the youngest artist in Africa to win a Grammy in the category of Best African Music Performance for the hit song.

She was also recently named Best New Artist and Best International Act at the BET Awards.

Tyla has amassed 4.03-million YouTube subscribers. Her album, which reached No 24 on the Billboard 200, has surpassed 900-million streams on Spotify.

Along with his summer playlist, Obama also shared his 2024 summer reading list.

“I’ve read some great books over the last few months and wanted to share some of my favourites. Let me know if you have any recommendations for books I should check out!” Obama said.