| MTV Video Music Award for Best Afrobeats Video | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Afrobeats music songs |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | MTV |
| First award | 2023 |
| Currently held by | Tyla – "Water" (2024) |
| Most nominations | (3 each) |
| Website | VMA website |
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Afrobeats Video award was first introduced at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2023.
Asake, Ayra Starr and Burna Boy currently hold the most nominations in this category, with three nominations each.
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| Year[a] | Winner(s) | Video | Nominees | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Rema and Selena Gomez | "Calm Down" |
|
[1] |
| 2024 | Tyla | "Water" |
|
[2] |
| 2025 | TBA | TBA |
|
[3] |
Tyla's official music video for her song "Water" was the winner at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards for MTV Video Music Award for Best Afrobeats Video.[4] In her acceptance speech, Tyla chose to identify with South African "amapiano", distancing herself from Nigerian "afrobeats", which ended up causing mayhem on social media as Nigerian on-air personality Do2dtun went on to call Tyla a hypocrite for receiving the award for Best Afrobeats in the first place before identifying with Amapiano.[5]
Tyla was also heavily criticized on social media and by notable people such as American media personality Joe Budden, for not choosing to hold her award and instead giving it to rapper Lil Nas X, she stated "I’m not strong enough, please hold it for me, thank you I'm sorry." Many thought she was asking the person next to him, female singer Halle Bailey, known mononymously as Halle and labeled Tyla as "uppity african", a term meaning a person shows a great sense of entitlement.[6][7][8] Tyla later confirmed she wasn't, in a post on X stating "Y’all make everything weird… I was not asking my girl Halle… We just girls," Halle later responded saying "Exactly, love u babes congrats.” American rapper Cardi B also came to the singer's defense.[9][10]
