Nigerian singer Tems beat Yemi Alade, Burna Boy and Wizkid to take home the Best African Music Performance Grammy for her song Love Me Jeje on Sunday. She is now the first Nigerian to win two Grammys after winning the Best Melodic Rap Performance in 2023 for featuring on Future’s song Wait For U.
The 29-year-old praised her mother while receiving the award on Sunday. “Wow, dear God thank you so much for putting me on this stage and bringing this team, and tomorrow is my mum’s birthday and this is her first Grammys,” she said.
“I just want to thank you mum, because she has done a lot for me and my brother.”
Tems’ Love Me Jeje has 125 million listens on Spotify and 21 million views on YouTube. Besides being nominated for Best African Music Performance, she was nominated for Best Global Music Album for Born in the Wild and Best R&B Song for Burning.
Tems, who became popular in 2018 with the release of her self-produced debut single Mr Rebel, achieved critical acclaim with Try Me in 2019. She featured on Wizkid’s song Essence, earning her several award nominations.
Holding multiple NAACP Image Awards, a Soul Train Music Award and BET Awards, here are some facts about Tems you should know:
Her love for music started after listening to Celine Dion
“I’m not sure when the first time I heard music was, but I found myself loving the radio, and I used to hear Celine Dion,” she recalled in an interview with Kendrick Lamar for Interview Magazine. “Nigerians love Celine Dion. Her songs are very emotional, jump-off-a-cliff type songs. They entered my soul. I think that’s where my love for music started.”
She was bullied for her voice
Before starting music, Tems lacked confidence because she was bullied for having a deep voice. A high school music teacher however encouraged her to nurture her talent and she went on to accept her unique voice.
She started writing songs around 10 years old
Even though she started writing songs at a very young age, Tems wrote her first official song at 17 — a song “about a Sunday morning”.
Using YouTube, she taught herself how to produce and engineer and has since written and produced most of her discography. The award-winning artist told NPR that she wrote, produced, and engineered most of her debut album, Born in the Wild.
She is philanthropic
The singer and fashionista recently hosted a successful wardrobe sale, where she offered fans an opportunity to pick from her closet. She then announced that she was sending proceeds from the sales to the Women at Risk International Foundation, a non-profit organization in Lagos that caters to the high incidence of sexual violence, rape and human trafficking amongst young girls and women across Nigeria and Africa.
She had a 9-to-5 job in digital marketing before starting music
An economics major, Tems graduated from IIE MSA and had a job in digital marketing but quit to do music. “She [her boss] was like, ‘If you’re not careful, I will fire you,’” Tems recalled to NPR. “And I was like, ‘Actually, this is the best time to say I want to quit.’ I was like, ‘I’m going to sing.’ She was livid.”
“I left the room shaking but I felt relieved, like ‘OK, now I’m starting my real life,’” she added.
Also watch Miki Osei Berko’s interview on Talkertainment below: