Classics never go out of style, and their legacy reaches far into the future with influence well beyond the year of their birth. Tyla’s reinterpretation of “Fairytale” by iconic South African house duo Liquideep is set to drop on the 24th of July 2026 along with the rest of her highly anticipated sophomore project A*Pop, and the refurbished song sees the double Grammy winner roll back the hands of time alongside Ziyon and Ryzor without touching the up the song too much to scramble the original composition beyond fond recognition.
Tyla and Liquideep | SUPPLIED
Tyla’s version of “Fairytale,” akin to the source material released in 2010, is a soulful house song that features equally stripped-down production floating on the levity of airy strings, the steady metronome of drums, and the honeyed harmonies of both Tyla and Ziyon intermingling to create a complementary interplay between the vocalists. The minor change to the song is the absence of the instrumental breathing in between the space of the chorus and the opening words of each verse. The reimagined “Fairytale” doesn’t attempt to be a verbatim mimic of one of the duo’s magnum opuses; it traces lines that defined the record enough to conjure the structure that made “Fairytale” recognisable but without turning the song into a ghost without an original voice and essence of its own.
Tyla | SUPPLIED
With Tyla introduced into the song, Ziyon has a companion within the performance that shifts what used to be a heartfelt monologue into a heart-to-heart between a man and a woman with mutual feelings of romance towards each other. Shaping the song one verse apiece, the new “Fairytale” makes no alterations to the lyrics of the original version; the change is minimal—the evolution blooms in the shape of a new character being cast, and the switch is enough to take a song that used to be a simplex confession of love and turn it into an exchange of romantic professions.
“Fairytale” comes as a curious juncture for both Tyla and Liquideep, with the former consolidating her prowess as a global figure in music, whilst the latter continues to re-establish the name with a vigorous comeback. The artists exist on two extreme ends of their respective careers, and as a result, the song serves as a rendezvous spot for the old school forerunners and the contemporary giants making world-sized strides. With the record now converted into a timeless benchmark in South African music that can now be revisited from two different entry points, a time when Mzansi music was making a mark on a continental level and period of cosmopolitan influence within the world village, Tyla has grounded her artistry in her roots and without apology, while still brandishing her flag as a force on a level that supercedes the boundaries of boarders.
Liquideep | SUPPLIED
“Fairytale” might have been a song Tyla grew up on, hence the nostalgia that called her back to it. The respect afforded to the remake, however, in the shape of keeping the songwriting unchanged as well as the basic underpinnings of the production, solidifies the “Water” hitmaker as an ambassador of South African music while also reaffirming Liquideep’s status as one of the country’s most influential acts of all time.
