“I met Mary J Blige,” Tems tells Vogue. “That was very cool.”
Inside the star-studded ceremony, Tems nabbed her first Grammy during the pre-televised segment. A cherry on top: meeting a personal idol. “I met Mary J Blige,” Tems says, awe filling her voice. “I used to listen to her when I was 13 or 12 like… a lot.” She takes a moment to consider what her former self might think of the meaningful run-in. “I come from Lagos and, at that time, there was no way I thought I would ever meet her. That was very cool.
Tems is fast becoming a continent-spanning star in her own right. Lagos has become an incubator for exciting, fresh-sounding Afrobeats stars, like Wizkid and Davido. In 2020, from Lagos, she released her debut EPs – which spawned the hit single “Free Mind”. Three years later, Tems has a serious chance of nabbing the Academy Award for Best Original Song as a songwriter on Rihanna’s“I love Rihanna, obviously,” Tems says of working with the Barbadian pop star.
Still, after all her successful and celebrated work with other artists, Tems is ready to show an unaccompanied view of herself. She says even the song “Free Mind”, which is still receiving heavy radio play and streams three years after its release, does not represent who she is anymore. “I really wrote that song in 2018,” she says. “From the time I wrote that song to now, so much has changed.”
She unpacks her state of mind at the time, saying: “I had just quit my job.” “I was at home a lot. I had no idea that I was even going to release new music. That time was one of the most emotional times of my life. Especially because I didn’t know what was going to become of me. Working everyday, trying to find some place in the world, what you’re meant to be doing. ‘Free Mind’ is really just an expression of how I felt at that time.
Things are different now. According to Tems, her lyricism has shifted away from anxieties and more towards confidence and self-assurance. Some of the songs “really encapsulate getting to a point where you don’t care about what people have to say anymore”, she says. “Just being comfortable with who you are as a person and knowing you’re more than enough. Being bold.”
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