Tyla Addresses Misconceptions In Cosmopolitan Cover Story

On a Justin Bieber cover video she posted when she was younger, hoping she would go viral:

“I was 11 years old at my old house back in South Africa, and I was a huge ‘Belieber. Oh my gosh. Guys, I used to have the biggest crush on Justin Bieber. Firstly, the night before. I know I prepared myself. I said, ‘I’m gonna wake up early, I’m gonna post my YouTube video, I’m gonna go viral.” Like I planned the whole thing. I was using my father’s computer and I recorded it and uploaded it. I remember checking the views every, like, 10 minutes and I thought I was gonna wake up to a million views. I didn’t. But yeah, it’s the cutest video ever. I tried many times to delete it and I can’t get my login still. It’s still on my main YouTube page. I think it’s cute.”

On her Grammy win and getting a congratulatory call from the President of South Africa:

“I still can’t believe it happened, like, oh my gosh. It didn’t register. It took a while, like, they said, ‘Water’ Tyla? Oh, okay. That’s me. And I won a Grammy! My parents came to America for the first time. My mother was crying in the audience. She couldn’t stop crying, she’s still crying till this day, I’m telling you right now… The president of South Africa gave me a whole video call congratulating me, and that also meant a lot to me because, obviously, the President of South Africa…what the heck? Nobody just gets calls from the President. That was also a fire moment for this year.”

On her New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performance:

“My New Year’s Eve performance, in New York. What I heck?! That offer was also, like, a crazy offer to get and I couldn’t have turned it down. Like, I mean, I was supposed to be with my family the whole Christmastime, which I would have loved. But I got to spend Christmas with them, and I had to tell them ‘I gotta go and sort of this thing.’ And I’m so happy I did. We also had not much rehearsal, but it came out exactly how we wanted. It was freezing people were even asking ‘How did you do that? Like, it was so cold?’ But I mean when you’re passionate about something you will literally go through a lot. And I got to meet and chill with my fellow [Cosmo] cover girl. Sabrina she’s super cute. Love her.”

Read Tyla’s full Cosmopolitan cover story HERE