Nigerian singer, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems on Sunday made history by becoming the second Nigerian female singer and first female Afrobeat artiste to win a Grammy award.
She won the ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’ category for her efforts on rapper Future’s 2022 hit track “Wait For You” which also featured Drake.
The song debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first female African artist to debut at number one and the second Nigerian artist to top the chart.
Many have attributed her rise to fame and global recognition to, particularly the opportunity to get nominated, to her collaboration with Wizkid for the hit track “Essence”.
She gained more prominence after she featured on a track by Canadian rapper Drake in his Certified Lover Boy album as well as in Rihana’s come back to the music industry in the lead single, ‘Lift Me Up’, for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, to honour the late lead actor Chadwick Boseman.
READ MORE: Nigeria Singer Tems Bags Her First Ever Grammy Award
Notable achievements by the singer include:
Her feature with Davido on a remade version of American singer-songwriter Khalid and English electronic music duo Disclosure’s single, “Know Your Worth” in April 2020.
The 2020 hit single of Wizkid, “Essence” which she was featured, reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, while the remix version of the song with Justin Bieber earned her a Grammy Award nomination.
After featuring on Drake’s song, “Fountains”, Tems in 2021, got signed to RCA Records after which she released “If Orange Was a Place (2021).
In the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever of 2022, Tems sang the sensational cover to Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” which hit number 1 on the Billboard charts, thereby becoming the first Nigerian artiste with a solo at number one on the Billboard charts.
She also became the Nigerian artiste with the most Billboard Hot 100 appearances.
In May 2022, Tems featured in a Coca Cola commercial alongside other international musicians for the new version of the Coke Studio programme.
The song “Lift Me Up” by Rihanna which was co-written with the Nigerian singer, got her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
In 2022, Tems bagged two BET awards out of three nominations, and became the first Nigerian female to win ‘Best International Act’.
In July 25, 2022, her solo “Free Mind” which she released in 2020, off her For “Broken Ears EP”, debut on Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Also in her kitty are two NAACP Image Awards, and two Soul Train Music Awards.
