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For someone who’s always loved music and wrote her first song at just six years old, it’s ridiculous to think that Tems used to believe that her voice sounded like a man’s.
Born Temilade Openiyi on June 11, 1995, to a British dad and Nigerian mom in Lagos, Tems spent the first few years of her life in England. She moved back to Nigeria with her mom after her parents divorced when she was about five years old.
As she grew, she filled her free time with music, learning to play the piano and guitar alongside her younger brother. When she was old enough to own a Walkman, she listened to Destiny’s Child, Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys and Aaliyah a lot. Before she became confident enough to sing any of their songs, she got a music teacher who helped her finetune her voice and get her confidence.
She always knew she wanted to spend her life making music, and in a bid to develop her own sound void of any influences, she stopped listening to other people’s songs at 15. Instead, she focused on creating music with her brother. Then, at 17 years old, she joined a choir and recorded her first song.
Her drive to begin her career made her sabotage all opportunities of going to school as she wanted to focus on music, but her mother fought against it. Eventually, she got admitted into a South African university and went on to study Economics. For most of her time in school, music took a backseat, and she only ever performed one time in South Africa. She got to open for Cassper Nyovest with a song called Highlights. She also learned how to produce from watching videos on YouTube. On one of her holidays from school, she realised producers didn’t want to help if she wasn’t willing to pay in cash or kind. So she gathered herself together and taught herself to produce her own songs.
When she eventually returned to Nigeria after school, she took a job as a digital marketer for a company to pay her bills. But she struggled a lot with it and eventually quit her job in 2018 to focus on music. She started by putting out a video on Instagram that helped her connect with more people in the industry. A few weeks later, she decided to release one of the songs she had recorded and chose Mr Rebel. The song didn’t immediately blow up, but it got her one step closer to her goal and two Headies nominations. She was nominated for ‘Best Vocal Performance (Female)’ and ‘Best ‘Alternative’ Song’.
Spurred by the relative success of Mr Rebel, she released her next single, Looku Looku. The track helped her earn even more fans and birth her dedicated fan base, ‘Rebel Gang’. At the time of this story, Mr Rebel has over 2.1 million plays on Audiomack and close to a million streams on Youtube. In comparison, Looku Looku has over 2.7 million plays on Audiomack and over 1.2 million streams on Youtube. However, Try Me (released in August 2019) broke her into the mainstream and created a buzz around her. Between YouTube and Audiomack, the song currently has more than 16 million streams. She released These Days in May 2020 after a couple of collaborations with Show Dem Camp, Odunsi, Khalid and Blackmagic.
In 2020, she received several nominations, including The Headies Next Rated award, The Future Awards Africa Prize for Music, and the City People Music Award for Next Rated Artiste (Female). This year, she received nominations for BET Awards’ Best New International Act and MTV Africa Music Award for Best Breakthrough Act.
Amid the pandemic on September 25, 2020, Tems released her much-awaited EP titled For Broken Ears to much love from the listening public and praises from critics. Her collaboration with Wizkid on ‘Essence’, off the singer’s ‘Made In Lagos’ album, also earned her global fame, with many commending her sultry vocals on the track. Her single Damages, off the EP, has surpassed 6 million streams on Spotify and Youtube and 11.9 million on Audiomack as of date. In addition, the song peaked at number 1 on Apple Music Nigeria Top 100 in September 2020. The song also earned her the NET Honours Class of 2021 award for Most Played Song – Alternative.
Tems is rightly attributed to magic because what she has achieved in a year is nothing short of it. She released a beautiful five-track EP titled “If Orange Was a Place” which has generated a lot of positive feedback from her fans.
By December 2021, Tems had to her name a NET Honours award, a Grammy nomination, a successful second EP, a top 20 track, Essence, on Billboard Hot 100, performing at a sold-out show at the 20 thousand capacity 02 Arena in London, and a successful headline concert at Livespot X Festival.
These are just an overview of all that she has accomplished.
Tems has put in the work since she was a child and is finally beginning to live her dreams. We can’t wait to see what else this brilliant singer-songwriter and producer will do.
Written by Mofijesusewa Samuel
The post The Making Of A Global Music Star: How Tems Is Taking Over Pop Culture One Hit Song At A Time appeared first on Nigerian Entertainment Today.
Source: TheNet
