Tyla opens her first headline world tour in Paris, with Royal MusiQ on the bill

Tyla’s A*POP World Tour is under way. The singer opened her first headlining world tour at Zénith Paris – La Villette on Monday 12 October, the first of 34 dates that will take her across Europe, the UK and North America before she plays three shows in Africa, two of them at home in South Africa.

The tour supports A*POP, her second studio album, which was released on 24 July through FAX and Epic Records. Paris was the first night on which audiences could see how she would carry that record across a full headline show of her own.

An amapiano opener for Europe

Royal MusiQ, the South African amapiano DJ and producer, opened the Paris show as Tyla’s special guest and is supporting her across the European leg. The pairing means European crowds hear a South African amapiano set before Tyla takes the stage each night.

Posting from Paris, Royal MusiQ wrote: “Paris got the first chapter. Had to leave my mark… A*POP is in motion. Europe, I like where this is going,” according to The Beats of Africa.

What she played

Glamour South Africa reported a set that drew on both albums, including “Push 2 Start”, “Jump”, “Water”, “Truth or Dare”, “Is It Love”, “CHANEL”, “Breathe Me”, “ART” and “That Girl”, with “Shake Ah” in the encore. Accounts of the running order differ: Glamour said she opened with “That Girl”, while Briefly News reported that she opened with “Push 2 Start”.

One unscripted moment travelled quickly. Sections of the Paris crowd chanted “Macron démission”, calling on French President Emmanuel Macron to resign. Glamour reported that Tyla looked briefly puzzled, then picked up the rhythm and danced to it.

The outfit that started a xibelani conversation

Tyla’s opening-night costume, a textured, fringed look, split opinion online. Some viewers mocked it. Others compared it to the xibelani, the layered Tsonga skirt that Sho Madjozi carried into the mainstream, and read it as a nod to home. One fan quoted by Briefly News described her as “literally rocking a mini xibhelana”.

Tyla has not commented on the reference, and the comparison remains a fan reading rather than a confirmed design brief. It still lands in a familiar argument. Her international rise has come with a running debate about labels, and about whether global audiences hear her as South African, as amapiano, or simply as pop. A costume that South African viewers read as Tsonga shows how closely the country watches what she carries abroad.

London doubled, Glasgow next

The tour moved to AFAS Live in Amsterdam on 13 October and then to London’s O2 Academy Brixton, where a second night on 16 October was added to the original 15 October date. The European leg continues at O2 Academy Glasgow on 18 October and O2 Apollo Manchester on 19 October, then runs through Brussels, Düsseldorf, Offenbach, Berlin, Stockholm and Oslo before closing at K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen on 1 November.

The North American leg starts in Wheatland, California, on 12 November and finishes in Las Vegas on 19 December.

The road home

After a Lagos date on 22 December, with the venue still to be announced, Tyla returns to South Africa for the last three shows. She plays Green Point Track in Cape Town on Monday 4 January 2027, then two indoor shows at SunBet Arena in Pretoria on 8 and 9 January. The Gauteng show was originally set for the Nasrec outdoor area in Johannesburg before organisers moved it indoors and added the second Pretoria date because of demand.

For South African fans, Paris was a first look at the show that will close the tour at home. Tickets for the South African dates are sold through Howler.