Nigerian singer Tems has just won her first Grammy Award, for her performance in Future’s “Wait For You”, where she was featured alongside Drake.
The song won the “Best Melodic Rap Performance” category in the 65th edition of arguably music’s biggest award show.
The 2023 Grammy Awards ceremony is currently being held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Trevor Noah is hosting the Grammys for the third year in a row.
Temilade Openiyi (born 11 June 1995), known professionally as Tems, is a Nigerian singer.
She rose to prominence after she was featured on Wizkid‘s 2020 single “Essence,” which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 after the release of a remixed version with an additional feature from Justin Bieber, and earned her a Grammy Award nomination. That same year, she was featured on Drake’s song, “Fountains.”
On 25 September 2020, she released her debut extended play, For Broken Ears. Tems released her second extended play, If Orange Was a Place (2021), after being signed to RCA Records.
In 2022, Tems’ vocals from her song “Higher” were sampled by Future on his single, “Wait for U“, which led to her being credited as a featured artist alongside Drake on the song.
It debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first African artist to debut at number one and the second Nigerian artist to top the chart. The song earned her the Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Tems covered Bob Marley‘s “No Woman, No Cry” for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, released in July 2022and in the same month, her song “Free Mind” from her debut EP debuted on the Hot 100.
Throughout her career, Tems has received many accolades, including a Grammy Award, two NAACP Image Awards, two BET Awards and two Soul Train Music Awards. She also co-wrote the song “Lift Me Up” by Rihanna, which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
Temilade Openiyi, was born on 11 June 1995 in Lagos, Nigeria to a Nigerian mother and a British-Nigerian father, she moved from Nigeria shortly after birth to the UK before returning at 5, after her parents divorced.
Tems resided in Ilupeju before moving to Lekki then Ajah. Tems attended Dowen College for secondary education and Monash South Africa for her tertiary education.
At school, she was noticed by her music teacher and learned to play the piano. She practiced singing with her brother and often used his guitar accompaniment.
On 14 December 2020, Tems was arrested alongside fellow Nigerian singer Omah Lay after they performed in a show in Uganda.
The Ugandan police authority identified violation of COVID-19 lockdown protocols as the reason for their arrests, but the two artists felt they were set up. Two days later, the Ugandan government released them, apologised for the arrests, and dropped the charges.
