In an interview on Apple Music’s The Dotty Show in July 2025, South African star Tyla revealed the three-year journey behind her Wizkid collaboration, “Dynamite.” She explained that the track originated after she approached the Afrobeat icon in a Nigerian hotel lobby in 2022, eventually recording the demo in Ghana. While discussing her recent three-track bundle, Tyla emphasized her goal to embark on a full tour and her refusal to chase another “Water,” prioritizing creative experimentation instead.

Here’s how the interview went down!

DOTTY: (00:02): Tyla, welcome back to the Dottie Show. How are you?

TYLA: (00:05): I’m good. How are you?

DOTTY: (00:06): I was good, and then I went to your party last night, and now I’m at about 60%.

TYLA: (00:11): Ah, me too, girl.

DOTTY: (00:13): Your party took everything out of me.

TYLA: (00:15): It was crazy. I almost hit you up. Sorry. I almost—

DOTTY: (00:20): Hit you up, Tyla. Listen, man, your party — you can throw a party. You’re a party girl. This is somebody who’s been partying and now knows exactly what a party needs.

TYLA: (00:32): Yeah, I’ve been at a few different types of parties, and you know where I’m from, so I know how to throw a good party.

DOTTY: (00:39): You do. The last time you were here, it was 2023. The debut album hadn’t dropped yet. There was no Jump yet. There was no Push the Start, no Grammys. So much has happened since you were last here. What has been the craziest moment of that journey?

TYLA: (00:56): Oh my word, so much happened. Met Gala, Grammy, my songs just doing so well. My fan base grew so much to the point where I have headline shows at the end of this year in Asia. What the heck? It’s insane the way things happen, but I’m blessed. I’m so happy. Yeah.

DOTTY: (01:17): It’s all happened so quickly, and it’s been nonstop. Have you had a chance to sit back and actually reflect on what your last 18 months has been like?

TYLA: (01:27): I try to do it. I kind of have to really sit back and think, because the way everything is so fast-paced in the industry, it’s just bam, bam, bam, bam. So it’s very hard to take it all in in the moment. But even recently, I had a moment where I was just by myself, and my whole year just played back in my head, and I was like, oh my gosh, God. You realise what you’ve done. It’s been crazy. It’s been crazy. It’s been so crazy. I’m just happy. I’m just so happy.

DOTTY: (02:50): How do you feel? Because I think when we spoke last time, you had high hopes, but it’s very different when those dreams actually come true. How does it feel being on the other side of your dreams now?

TYLA: (03:01): Yeah, it’s crazy. I’m definitely still at the beginning stages of where I see myself, but the fact that what I’ve been doing has had the reaction it’s had, it’s like I kind of have to just be humbled by it. It’s really something that doesn’t happen that often, and it’s not something that I take for granted at all. It’s just, yeah, it’s exciting, for real. That’s just it. That’s my dream life.

DOTTY: (04:27): Was there any part of this that you weren’t prepared for? Because like I said, it happened so fast — it’s like we blinked and Tyla was a superstar. Was there any part of that that you were like, oh, I wasn’t ready for this bit of it?

TYLA: (04:38): To be honest, yeah. I kind of had a way I wanted to do this and a way I thought things would’ve happened, but God obviously rushed that process for me. So last year, there were a lot of times where I felt like, damn, I wish I had a little bit more time before the world saw my rough drafts, before the world saw me figuring things out. Because when Water blew up, I was still learning myself as an artist.

I hadn’t performed much. When Water blew up, I probably performed on just bar tables, clubs in South Africa, on the bar tables with my best friend DJing. I never had that much experience until obviously I was thrown in the deep end with the Chris Brown tour, and then Water blew up. It just felt like constantly God was just teaching me how to swim by throwing me in.

TYLA (05:36): So yeah, it was hectic for a while, because I felt like I just wanted to still experiment, but I had to get everything right straight away because the world was like, okay, well now you’re here. Let’s see if you’re going to live up to it. So it was kind of difficult, but I’m happy that I went through it because I’m now at a point where I really am just the most creative I’ve been. I’m just doing whatever I want to do, and if I don’t like it a month from now, it’s like, whatever, I did it. I tried it. So yeah, I’m having fun.

DOTTY: (07:10): That’s something we don’t really think about much. When there’s a young artist kind of learning in front of our eyes, we kind of expect you to be finished and ready, when actually you are figuring it out as you go along. What has been the biggest lesson for you that you’ve learned in the past two years?

TYLA: (07:26): Probably detachment.

DOTTY: (07:28): Detachment.

TYLA: (07:29): In terms of detachment. I mean, in terms of, I learned that now that I’m here, my life and what I do is now for the world. I have some things that are private to me, but there’s only so much you can control. You kind of have to let go a lot in the industry. You have to let people think whatever they think. You can’t fight everyone if people say things about you. You kind of have to let it go and be so confident in yourself that it doesn’t phase you. And also just knowing that if something happened, you’ve got to move on. You’ve got to keep going. You can’t let things slow you down. Yeah, you have to just keep going and hitting them harder.

DOTTY: (08:21): Love that.

TYLA: (08:21): Yeah.

DOTTY: (08:22): We’re going to talk about this new three-track bundle, but before we do, I’ve got beef with you from the last album. There’s a song on there that I think should have been a single.

TYLA: (08:33): Which one?

DOTTY: (08:34): On My Body.

TYLA: (08:36): You like that one?

DOTTY: (08:36): How have we not got a video for that? Who do I need to talk to? That needs a music video, heavy choreography, visualiser.

TYLA: (08:44): You want to do it for me?

DOTTY: (08:45): No, no. I want to be the viewer. You and Becky G made that song, and then it was just hidden on the album.

TYLA: (08:54): It’s a banger.

DOTTY: (08:56): That’s got to be a song that was in conversations about being a single, surely.

TYLA: (09:01): For sure. I mean, we could always do a video. The fact that I saw Charli did a music video for a song that was years old, Party for You, it kind of made me think art is kind of timeless. You know how you feel like you can drop an album and then a year goes by, then you kind of have to make a new album and move on. But now you can go back to your old art and revive it. So maybe there’ll be an On My Body video.

DOTTY: (09:32): I’ll be waiting, because that song, that’s my favourite song off that project.

TYLA: (09:35): Oh, thank you.

DOTTY: (09:36): And I think it has all the ingredients of a hit single. In fact, can we listen to it right now? Yes, and then we’ll come and talk about the new music.

TYLA: (09:42): Okay.

DOTTY: (09:43): Alright, let’s get into it. It’s Tyla, On My Body, featuring Becky G. Tyla’s joined me in the studio right now. We got a couple of new tunes from you. It dropped first — absolute tune — at your party. You previewed a song with Wiz. People can now listen to that song on your project. Tell me how that song came about.

TYLA: (12:27): Oh my word, I love the story. It was so insane. I went to Nigeria for the first time, and I was in the hotel lobby, and I literally saw Wizkid in the lobby go into the elevator, and I was like, what the heck? There’s no way. I just saw Wizkid. I’m a huge fan. He’s a legend, a living legend, literally, especially for us people in Africa and US artists. He’s it.

So I was so excited, and I was like, hey, let me just take a chance. And I DMed him. I was like, I saw you in the lobby. Can I come play you some music? And he answered, and he’s like, yeah, come. Then I went upstairs with Uncle Colin over there, and I played him some stuff. I played him Disco, that song that my Tygers are hounding me for, and he liked it too, and he invited me to go do some sessions with him in Ghana.

(13:27): So I went. I was like, hey, I told Book my ticket right now. I went and I stayed close by, and I just waited for him to hit me up and let me know, come to the studio. This was 2022, so that was a long time ago. And he hit me up. I went to him, and we were just talking for a while, and then P-Prime was busy playing around in the other room, and I heard the beat, and it was hot. And I just told Wiz, like, hold on, let me just go lay something. And yeah, I just freestyled some vibes on the beat, and he liked it. So I wrote to it, and he freestyled some stuff. And I just had that demo since 2022. I was jamming to that demo till 2025. So for three years, I was living off that demo, and I just knew, hey, one day the song is going to have to come out. And when I thought about We Want to Party and this mixtape and everything, I went back to all my demos, and I sent it to him again. I said, hey, don’t forget our song. And he finished it with me.

DOTTY: (14:38): Look at that — persistence.

TYLA: (14:41): I was pinging, I’m telling you, but I’m happy I did. I love it the way it turned out.

DOTTY: (14:48): Yeah. Dynamite’s a banger. Your sound is very distinctive, and it’s crazy because no song sounds like the next. Water sounds nothing like Push the Start, which sounds nothing like Jump. But they’re all up-tempo songs you can party to. Is that deliberate? Is that what you want your signature to be?

TYLA: (17:43): I don’t really think about what I want my signature to be. I’m just genuinely experimenting, making stuff that doesn’t sound like what’s on the radio. I love making music that sounds like Tyla. When people hear it, it’s like, okay, that’s a Tyla vibe. So I think that’s just what I do with everything. Even when I approached this new music that I started making, me and Sammy and Corey, Mocha, Ari, we are monsters in the studio. When we get in, we get in, and we make bangers. We always come out with a banger, no questions. And yeah, it’s just crazy the way it just falls into place. I feel like when I started with Getting Late, I was on that journey of finding how I’m going to mix up things and create something that feels tailored to me, and I just feel like I keep growing the more I make music. So it’s just happening. It’s just happening.

DOTTY: (18:45): It’s crazy that you say every time you leave the studio, it’s a banger, because we’re big fans of you on this show, and we always say Tyla, all hits, no misses. We say it all the time. There’s no miss in the journey. Every single song is just smash, smash, smash, hit, hit, hit. Do you put pressure on yourself where you’re like, if it doesn’t make me feel like this, it doesn’t make the cut? Because it feels like the quality control is crazy over there.

TYLA: (19:11): I’m an A&R. I really feel like I am an A&R, because I just know, for me personally, I love my music. I also feel like everything I release is a banger. Obviously, everyone has their own taste, but for me, I have to feel very strongly about it to release it. I don’t want to release things that are just like, eh. Why would I do that? I guess, yeah, if I release something, just know that I really love it and I really believe in it.

DOTTY: (19:43): Well, you’ve given us these three tracks. It feels like you are holding space. You’re holding a little space for us. What’s on the other side of this? It feels like you’re saying, wait there, I’m going to give you these songs. I’ll be right back. What is on the other side of these three songs?

TYLA: (19:59): I wasn’t even intending on releasing a whole mixtape or a pack around this time. I just got so excited about what I was making with everyone, and I have so many songs that are perfect for summer, and I just wanted to let them out.

(20:16): The music that I’m releasing and making now, I really feel like I’m in a stage of experimenting again. So I kind of just want to do whatever, make whatever. I want to rap. I want to sing pop. I want to try a bunch of stuff and not have so much pressure on putting it in an album yet, because I feel like I’ll know when I want to drop an album. But I might change my mind and drop one next month. I change my mind a lot. But I think with this music that I’m releasing now, there’s definitely more that’s coming, and that feels very different. I know a lot of people feel like the music I make is similar, but I feel like a lot of the stuff that I’ve been making that’s coming a bit down the line, I don’t think could stand next to Water and be the same. So I’m excited about that.

DOTTY: (21:11): Yeah. Is Water always in the back of your mind? It was so big. Is it always kind of just sitting there when you make music?

TYLA: (21:18): No. Obviously, I want to make more that have that impact, but I don’t want to make another Water. That’s not my plan. I want to make a banger that’s different, its own vibe.

DOTTY: (21:50): Well, the last time you left here, you went off, you won some Grammys, you had some massive hits. When you come back here again in 18 months, what’s going to have happened between now and then?

TYLA: (22:01): Hopefully, I actually go on tour and do a full tour, because I’ve been wanting to do that. Yeah, I just really want to tour, to be honest. And yeah, I just want people to enjoy the music the same way I do and my team does. My team, they’re probably some of my biggest fans, because they’ll be like, put on Chanel, put on Mr. Media. They genuinely vibe with the music. And if they do, I’m just like, nah, people are going to vibe with it. So we’ll see where it takes me. Yeah.

DOTTY: (22:31): Love that. Tyla, thank you for coming through. We played Dynamite. Let’s close to this one. It’s Mr. Media.

Source(s): Interview and images supplied