FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Tems — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Modern-Day Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Zoe McConnell for Billboard

Tems

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I think there…

PHOTO CREDIT: Bet Bettencourt

is a lot of desire and demand for a new Tems album. Her previous album, 2024’s Born in the Wild, was one of the best from the year. It was one of my favourites from the 2024. A remarkable and inspiring artist, she is a GRAMMY-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter and producer. Born Temilade Openiyi (in Lagos, Nigeria), after gaining traction and hype with her 2018 single Mr. Rebel and the incredible 2019 hit Try Me, Tems’s fame and name grew through collaborations on Wizkid's Essence and Drake's Fountains. I want to start by taking us to last year and an interview from W Magazine. Writing how Tems is ready for Pop queendom and how she was made for this moment, “Her name, Temilade, means “the crown is mine”. The release of Born in the Wild elevated her to a new level.

“Tems, 29, was born in Lagos to a British-Nigerian father and a Nigerian mother, who named her Temilade—which means “the crown is mine” in Yoruba. After a few years in the U.K., her parents separated, and Tems moved back to Lagos with her mother. She has described herself as a quiet child, and music soon became a passion and source of solace. Although her mother played Christian music at home, Tems eventually got her hands on a Destiny’s Child CD, which she studied as if it were the Rosetta stone. Last year, she opened up about the challenges she faced as a woman with a lower-register voice, which she and her bullies believed to be manly and unbecoming. Despite spending most of her teenage years attempting to sing in falsetto, eventually, at the urging of a cherished music teacher, she embraced her authentic tone. “I started to want that deepness. I wanted to lean into my weirdness,” she has said. Now the velvety, androgynous quality of her voice is one of the things that makes her so immediately recognizable and so impossible to impersonate.

When she was a college student, Tems reached out to many Nigerian producers, but they were not interested in helping to engineer the hybrid sound she was chasing: something more introspective, melancholic, and complex than the joyful and jubilant sounds of Afrobeats, which dominate Nigerian charts. Using Internet tutorials and Logic software, Tems learned how to record and produce in her dorm room, and in 2018 she shared her track “Mr Rebel” with the world. The release attracted a loyal following and interest from radio DJs, and resulted in her first management contract.

Not long after came “Know Your Worth,” a collaboration with Khalid, Disclosure, and Davido. Before she knew it, “Essence” ended up on Barack Obama’s 2020 annual playlist. Then Beyoncé’s team was knocking on her door, asking for a collaboration on Renaissance (Tems is featured, along with Grace Jones, on “Move”). She quickly established herself as one of the most distinctive forces in global pop. “What I’m trying to do,” she said in 2022, “or what I hope that god does through me, is change the image of the African woman to be something luxurious, or desired, or sought after. For the demand of the African woman to go up.… Let us not be chasing foreign things; let us be something to be chased.”

With the advent of TikTok and Reels, the music industry has been irrevocably altered by the attention economy. Artists are told by managers and major labels that their primary task is to capture people’s focus in the shortest amount of time possible, and to hold it for as long as they can. The rise of Gen Z has also seen the triumph of the relatable superstar: figures who are flawed, unfiltered, candid, and easy to identify with, for people still figuring out who they are. But one of the most interesting things about Tems is that there is almost nothing easily relatable about her. Her songwriting is mature, literary, and spiritual, and her cathartic melodies—many of which are freestyled—seem to pour out of her innermost psyche. Her music and visuals are an ode to everything that Internet culture seems to be eradicating: nuance, patience, depth, and an ability to see beyond the self.

For Born in the Wild, Tems wrote and produced many of the tracks herself. “It’s definitely more expansive,” she said of the record. “You know that Lion King song?” she asked rhetorically, before singing the lyric: “I just can’t wait to be free!” She claimed it’s been stuck in her head for the past six months. “That’s what I’m most looking forward to right now: sharing this story and being free”.

At the GRAMMYs earlier this year, Tems won the award for Best African Music Performance for Love Me Jeje. It has been a big year for her. She has just completed a series of gigs with Coldplay at Wembley Stadium. Someone that is going to go from strength to strength. Billboard spoke to Tems in May as she dealt with the demands of grind ands globe-trotting stardom. As she was climbing the charts and making history, she was picking up legions of new fans:

“In March, Tems became the first artist to perform at The Dome, the new, 10,500-capacity venue in Johannesburg that Live Nation launched with Stadium Management South Africa and Gearhouse South Africa earlier this year. “We’re always looking to create epic moments,” Awoniyi says. “Live Nation let us know about the venue that they were building. Our agents spoke to them, and because we are very moments-focused, for her to be the first artist to perform there is cool.” Her team is carefully planning on rescheduling her show in Rwanda while adding new stops in Kenya, Ghana and, of course, Nigeria.

Bringing the fruits of her success back home remains fundamental to Tems’ mission. Pave Investments — an African private investment firm that backs platforms creating opportunities to develop and support African talent globally, such as Tems’ company, The Leading Vibe — reached out to her camp with the opportunity to join the San Diego FC ownership group. “I grew up around my uncles and brother watching matches, and because they’re so loud, I’m forced to pay attention. I always wondered about being able to be in the business of it because it’s a man’s world,” Tems says. In her role, she’ll work closely with the Right To Dream Academy, a youth association football academy that started in Ghana and has since expanded with branches in Egypt, Denmark and the United States. “That’s something that piqued my interest, being able to build other Africans up, build other children up and give them more opportunities that they wouldn’t have otherwise seen,” Tems says.

Her historic entrance into the sports realm aligns with the ethos of The Leading Vibe, which she established in 2020 and where she serves as a director. Named for a lyric from “Mr Rebel” — “I’m the crown, I’m the vibe, I’m the leading vibe” — it allows her to “[lead] by example” and make a “difference in the world” by holding and managing her assets (she fully owns her masters for For Broken Ears and co-owns the masters for If Orange Was a Place and Born in the Wild) while serving as an incubator for investment, philanthropy and new business ventures. Through The Leading Vibe, she’s working on an initiative to support young African female artists, songwriters and producers.

“The way her brand is constructed is not limiting. You can see her at a football match today, you can see her at Formula 1 tomorrow,” Awoniyi says. In February, Aston Martin reported that 15,000 people watched her perform “Higher” at the unveiling of its new car design for the 2025 F1 season at London’s O2 Arena. She’s yet to headline her own show at the famed venue, but Awoniyi says they “haven’t been trying to rush” her growth as an artist to ensure the longevity of her career.

Tems says she’s currently making music “that I’m really excited about that sounds nothing like Born in the Wild,” and that after contributing to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, she wants to hear more of her music in film — maybe even in the form of an original score — and possibly get in front of the camera. But while her universe may be continually expanding, Tems still wants her impact on the world to be fulfilling”.

I am going to end with a feature from the BBC. She told them that women are not really respected in the industry. Tems has been helping African women overcome many of the hurdles in the music industry through “The Lagos-based nonprofit Audio Girl Africa, which describes itself as a “pan-African sisterhood building the future”, holds workshops and mentors female artists, A&Rs, marketers, and other music business professionals”:

“The two-time Grammy award-winner told the BBC that at the start of her career, she struggled to be taken seriously.

"I realised that there's always a cost. There's always a price that you pay. And a lot of those prices I wasn't willing to pay and there wasn't a lot of options," Tems said.

Afropop has gained immense global popularity over the past decade, but despite this growth it remains notoriously male-dominated.

The industry's so-called "Big Three" - Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid - are all male - while their female counterparts, such as Tiwa Savage, external and Yemi Alade, have spoken out about the barriers they face because of their gender.

Earlier this year, Tems hit out following negative comments about her body, which were made online after a video of her performing was posted onto X.

She wrote on the social media platform: "It's just a body, I will add and lose weight. I never once hid my body, I just didn't feel the need to prove or disprove anyone. The more you don't like my body the better for me actually."

Tems told the BBC she wants "to change the way women see themselves in music", and hopes to achieve this through her new platform, The Leading Vibe Initiative.

The project aims to provide opportunities for young women throughout Africa's music industries.

"I promised myself that if I get to a place where I can do more, I will make this initiative for women like me and maybe make it easier for women to access platforms and access a wider audience and success," Tems said.

The initiative kicked off on Friday in Tems' hometown, Lagos. Vocalists, songwriters and producers were invited to a series of workshops, masterclasses and panel discussions, all with the aim of developing skills and connections.

Asked what advice she would give to young women wanting to crack the industry, she said: "I think it's important to have an idea of what you want for yourself, what your brand is, what's your boundary.

"What are the things that you wouldn't do for fame and the things that you would do?"

Tems, who has scored hits with the likes of Love Me Jeje, external and Free Mind, external, said anyone trying to break into the industry must be passionate about their craft.

"It's not everybody that sings that loves music. If I wasn't famous, I would still be doing music. I would be in some kind of jazz club... randomly on a Friday night," she said.

But this is far from Tems' reality. Five years on from her debut EP, she has collaborated with the likes of Beyoncé and Rihanna, racked up more than 17m monthly listeners on Spotify and headlined international festivals.

And next month, she will be supporting British band Coldplay during their sold-out run of gigs at the UK's Wembley Stadium.

Tems puts her success down to being "authentic" and "audacious".

One of the most important artists in music, Tems is not only building her own success and carving her own path. She is also ensuring that women in the industry, particularly African women, are heard and have opportunities. Subjected to barriers and sexism, this artist is empowering so many others. It is going to be interesting seeing what the next year offers Tems. How she moves from here. I have been a fan for a while now, though I feel her best days are still ahead. If you have not heard he music or know too much about her, then do go and follow her. The amazing Tems is someone that…