Tyla beats Davido and Burna Boy to win 2026 NAACP Image Award

Tyla bags another international win

Grammy-winning South African star Tyla has added another major international accolade to her growing list of achievements after clinching the 2026 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding International Song.

The singer triumphed over a competitive field that included Nigerian heavyweights Davido and Burna Boy, marking yet another moment where she edged out the Afrobeats giants on a prominent American stage.

Tyla secured the award for her 2025 release Is It, distributed via Epic Records.

The accolade was announced on Tuesday, 24 February 2026, as part of a group of non-televised honours ahead of the 57th NAACP Image Awards, set to take place at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California.

In the category, she beat In Our Sight by Skip Marley, Love by Burna Boy, With You by Davido featuring Omah Lay, and You4Me by Tiwa Savage, earning her first-ever NAACP Image Award.

While fans celebrated the milestone, the win also reignited online debate around Tyla’s identity.

Shortly after the announcement, a fan page on X marked the moment with a cheeky caption: “Y’all would NEVER believe what the ‘C’ in ‘NAACP’ stand for 🤣”.

The post quickly gained traction, with supporters pointing out what they saw as irony in past criticisms directed at the singer.

Others, however, argued that the historical context of the NAACP’s name differs from how such terms are used in modern discourse, pushing back against attempts to frame the win within identity politics.