Tyla Reveals the Must-Have Items on Her Backstage Rider for Performances (Exclusive)
The Grammy winner tells PEOPLE about her backstage essentials and new campaign with Bose for the brand’s new Ultra Open Earbuds.After winning a Grammy and releasing her debut album earlier this year, the South African singer, 22, won her first-ever MTV VMA in the best Afrobeats video category for her global breakthrough hit “Water” on Sept. 11 — and she nearly didn’t attend the awards show! “I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to go, because I don’t know how it’s going to go.’ But then I was like, ‘Let me just go because I want to look cute on the red carpet,'” Tyla tells PEOPLE of the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards. “It was a very special moment for myself and for African music.” During the ceremony at New York’s UBS Arena, the “Jump” singer was featured in a Bose commercial for the brand’s Ultra Open Earbuds alongside LISA, Central Cee and Don Toliver. The ad takes viewers inside each artist’s green room, where they use the earbuds while each getting ready for performances. The unique, cuff-like earbuds are made for anyone who wants to simultaneously listen to music and remain aware of their surroundings. “I like that it doesn’t look weird on the eye, and I just like that you’re able to talk at the same time,” explains the Bose partner. “You’re not completely in your own world.” Tyla, whose first single dropped in 2019, may still be somewhat of a newcomer to the mainstream music world, but she’s now had quite a few green rooms of her own — and knows the must-have items on her backstage rider. “I have a Le Labo candle, I have ginger, I have Tabasco sauce, I have pineapple juice. I love pineapple juice so much,” she says.
“When I can, a little champs, but mainly for celebration. I like popping the champagne after a good show and sharing it with the dancers and crew. But I don’t have crazy stuff yet.
” One thing Tyla definitely can’t go without before a show that she may wish to avoid at this point if she had the choice? A glass of H2O.
Following the massive success of “Water,” it’s become slightly awkward to order the essential beverage. “Restaurants, interviews, everywhere I go, people find it weird to offer me water,” she says with a laugh. “It’s a thing now. If someone offers me water, in my head I’m just thinking, ‘OK, this again.'”
