Entertainment

01 September 2023

• Tems is a globally celebrated artist with an incredible portfolio on her belt. She is currently working on her debut album.

• Some of her notable accomplishments include appearing on the soundtrack to Black Panther's: Wakanda Forever, collaborating with Drake and Beyonce, as well as co-writing Rihanna's single Lift Me Up

Grammy award winning Nigerian singer and song writer Tems is opening up about her cultivated love for music and when she first fell in love with the art.

Speaking during a engaging interview she had with multi-award-winning American rapper and philanthropist Kendrick Lamar, Tems got into an in depth discussion on how she found her path in music and when it started.

“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. 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," the Nigerian super star excitedly told Kendrick.

She went on to add that she started writing songs when she was barely a teenage, although at that point it was just her musings and not full songs.

“And then, when I was 9 or 10, I started writing songs, but it wasn’t songs with choruses, it was just verses of things I was feeling.

Then I fell into this deep hole of music obsession, and it was the only thing that made me feel alive. I can’t describe the feeling when I first got my first CD.

"It was a Destiny’s Child CD that was fake; it had 30 songs, and I learned them all," the 28-year-old super star said.

Intrigued by her journey, Kendrick Lamar asked Tems about how she found herself delving into a genre like R&B especially at a time when many have tried to box her into styles synonymous with her nationality and culture.

“Everyone I asked for advice was like, ‘The only way you can do this is Afro beats. It’s not that your music is bad, it’s just that it doesn’t fit in Nigeria. Nigerians don’t like this,'” the “Free Mind” singer explained to her Compton peer.

“I’m okay with no one liking it, I just want to make this music. I want to make music that makes me pour my heart out, and if I can’t do that, I don’t want anything. I would rather do that and be broke than compromise," said the multi award winning Nigerian in a set matter of fact tone.

Tems is a globally celebrated artist with an incredible portfolio on her belt.

Some of her notable accomplishments include appearing on the soundtrack to Black Panther's: Wakanda Forever, collaborating with artists like Drake and Beyonce, as well as co-writing Rihanna's single Lift Me Up, which went on to score an Oscar nomination.

She is currently working on her debut album.