Tyla Threw a Neon Paint Party Onstage During the Opening Night of Her Concert
She called to mind an iconic movie scene from the 2000s
Reported by Harper's Bazaar.
Tyla opened the first night of her A*Pop World Tour at Paris's Zénith stadium on October 12 with the kind of visual spectacle that makes you want to immediately search her name. One section of the set was a full UV black-light moment — industrial scaffolding, neon paint splattered across her body, and Day-Glo lighting that turned the stage into something between a rave and a fever dream. According to Harper's Bazaar, the sequence had unmistakable Miss Congeniality energy — specifically, the 2000 film's now-iconic paint-splatter drum bar scene. Whether intentional or not, the comparison lands.
For the segment, Tyla dressed the part without losing her grip on cool. She wore a fluorescent orange and highlighter-yellow bra with a matching clementine choker, layered over a cream plunging bandage bodysuit. The bottom half featured a micro skirt with tufted fringe that read like sea anemone tentacles — strange in theory, perfect in execution. Black knee-high leather boots grounded the whole thing.
The Y2K Obsession Is Still Running the Show
This is not a one-off. Tyla has been methodically pulling from the early-aughts archive since she broke through — and she's doing it well. She's worn a blue riff on Aaliyah's tiger-print Roberto Cavalli dress from the 2000 VMAs. She showed up to Coachella in full Britney Spears I'm a Slave 4 U mode. Every era reference feels considered, not costumey. There's a difference between nostalgia and fluency, and Tyla is clearly fluent.
What makes her approach work is that it doesn't feel like a mood board exercise. The callbacks are sharp enough to register without swallowing her own identity — she's building something that's distinctly hers, just with very good taste in source material. The neon paint moment wasn't a throwback. It was a statement about where pop spectacle lives right now, and who's running it.
If this is what opening night looks like, the A*Pop World Tour is already making a case for Tyla as one of the most visually intentional artists working in pop — and she's just getting started.
Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.
