In just a few years, Tems went from working a digital marketing job to becoming a globally known hit-maker who rubs shoulders with stars like Beyoncé, Rihanna and Drake — all without losing her cool or confidence. “When I make music, I don’t really think about where it’s going to end up,” she explains nonchalantly. “I just leave it all in the studio.”
To a certain extent, she doesn’t even have time to think about where her songs will end up — since once she releases them, they tend to immediately spread everywhere. Ever since she was featured on Wizkid’s 2020 smash, “Essence,” which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 a year later (with the help of a Justin Bieber remix) and earned a Grammy nod for best global music performance, the 28-year-old Nigerian artist’s rich, velvety voice has traveled far beyond the African continent and become a mesmerizing fixture in popular music. Drake put up billboards in Tems’ hometown of Lagos to announce she would be featured on his 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy; a year later, they appeared together again on Future’s Hot 100 No. 1 “Wait for U,” which samples “Higher” from Tems’ 2020 debut EP, For Broken Ears. She was one of only three featured artists on Beyoncé’s 2022 Renaissance album. And she earned Golden Globe, Academy Award and Grammy nominations for co-writing Rihanna’s 2022 comeback single, “Lift Me Up,” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
But she hasn’t needed others’ star power to shine, establishing herself as a solo hit-maker as well. With “Essence” leading a major crossover movement for Afrobeats in the United States, Tems emerged as one of the first big African acts here of the last few years. For Broken Ears produced another sleeper hit with “Free Mind,” which set a record for most weeks (17) at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart for a song by a female lead artist the following May. (SZA’s “Snooze” later surpassed it.) And even though Tems only released two singles last year — “Me & U” in October and “Not an Angel” in December — she was responsible for or featured on eight of the top 40 Afrobeats songs in the United States in 2023, according to Luminate.
It’s a remarkable career trajectory for someone who has yet to release her debut album — which Tems assures “is 1,000% coming out this year,” though she matter-of-factly adds that she’s “not thinking too much about outcomes.”
Such self-assuredness comes naturally to the artist born Témìládè Openiyi, whose Nigerian mother broke with Yoruba tradition by choosing her daughter’s name — a role typically reserved for the father’s side of the family — because “God told me,” Tems’ mother explained on For Broken Ears’ “Témìládè Interlude.” Growing up, “everybody just called me Temi. Nobody really called me by my full name. It wasn’t something that was on my mind,” Tems says. “It’s only now, as an adult, that I started realizing that it meant ‘The crown is mine.’ I think that’s really powerful. It feels manifested, based on how my life has gone.”
And it’s fitting for Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music Breakthrough honoree, who is smashing boundaries for African artists and crossing over to the U.S. market without compromising her own sound. When Tems started making music in her early 20s, the producers she met with often told her that if she wanted to be popular in Nigeria, she should make Afrobeats music. But for someone who grew up enamored by the sentimental melodies of Céline Dion, Destiny’s Child and Mariah Carey, Tems yearned to make soul-stirring songs that sent people deep into their feelings rather than joyful dance records that anyone could catch a vibe to. “Is it possible to make this type of music even though I’m Nigerian? Is there a limit to what I can make?” Tems recalls asking herself. “I wanted to find out.”
In 2018, she quit her job and independently wrote, produced, recorded and released her debut single, “Mr. Rebel,” which showcased her arresting vocals over a buoyant, introspective beat (and established her fan base as the “Rebel Gang”). “It wasn’t an overnight thing,” Tems says of transitioning to making music full time. But as she struggled to establish herself, she had the freeing realization that “I was selling myself short by not pursuing my passion and worrying about what people think.”
That extended to the ways others tried to categorize her music. “Afrobeats” has become a catch-all term for popular music emerging from West Africa, but Tems says her music, which encompasses neo-soul, R&B, reggae, hip-hop and Afrobeats, “doesn’t perfectly fit into one genre.” And she has been touted as a leader in the subcultural alté movement, which emerged in the mid-2010s among young Nigerian creatives who found nontraditional ways of expressing themselves through music and fashion.
“I believe not every Nigerian needs to do the generic sound because we’re talented in general, and whatever we decide to do, we’ll just do it really well,” says Tems’ co-manager Muyiwa Awoniyi, who first met the musician in 2019 during a studio session she attended. When one of the producers present complained that Tems kept rejecting the music they were playing and she stood her ground, her fortitude impressed Awoniyi, who started managing her four months later.
Ever since, Awoniyi and co-manager Wale Davies have prioritized helping Tems make “amazing music that attracts the maximum amount of people possible,” says Awoniyi, who views her career milestones as her music’s “ripple effect,” but says such accomplishments don’t drive her or her team. (They do, he admits, “keep [Tems’] name in the conversation,” especially when she’s not actively releasing music.)
While Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade led the charge for African female artists in the 2010s, in this decade, Tems has paved the way for a new generation that also includes Ayra Starr and Tyla, the latter of whom recently scored a Hot 100 top 10 with her pop-infused amapiano smash, “Water.” Tems and Tyla are among a handful of African acts performing at Coachella this spring — further proof that African music, in its many styles, continues to take over the world’s biggest stages.
“I’m not sure if I would ever really be aware of whatever impact my story has, but it feels inspiring to know that I’ve inspired others because I’m inspired by other people as well,” Tems says. “It just encourages me to keep going.”
This story originally appeared in the March 2, 2024, issue of Billboard.
