Tems Quotes

Nigerian singer-songwriter (born 1995)

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Temilade Openiyi (born 11 June, 1995), known professionally as Tems, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record producer. 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".
Tems is the first Nigerian to win two Grammy Awards to her name.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Native Name: Temilade Openiyi

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It was just very easy, it wasn't something I had to try for. So I understood music to be my thing and no matter what it was going to take, I had to end up in it.

I had a show the night before, so on Friday I was just sleeping the whole day.

It’s not necessarily people, it’s really just a system. But once you’re an artist you’re not really an artist, you’re an entertainer – your life is entertainment for people. It’s a system of distraction.

Everything happened organically. The fact that so many people resonate with it makes me feel really good. I'm happy they can feel it.

I love, love, love guitars and chords. I like things that are based on the instruments I originally learned—violin, flutes. I like things that sound raw and pure. When it comes to drums, I like them very percussion-heavy and in my own way. I enjoy hard kicks and tight snares.

Freestyling, for me, feels like a release. A lot of things I feel, I can't explain, I just sing it. So it was one of those days when it was just inside me. I don't know where it came from. By the time I finished, I knew I had something special.

When I see any one of you gracing a stage, I feel like that’s me. We’re all winning and we’re about to move in like a tsunami… know that love lives on this side. As we show the world how it’s done.

The more power the people have, the greater we become as a whole.

I don’t want to be somebody that follows; I don’t want to be the ‘after’ person.

I can understand, when it's the speaking.

But I wasn’t thinking about how to be better in the limelight, I was just thinking of how to be a better person in general, the best possible version of myself. And I think once you start being visible, a lot of these things that you didn’t know existed start coming to light, you start knowing yourself more, too.

I used to write poems a lot – I’ll just sit down and write things I’m feeling, and it’ll come out so poetic, even if I’m just talking about breakfast.

It was just really crazy. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. That was when I realized things have actually changed.

When did I realize I was blown? When I got a DM from RiRi.

I got exposed to a couple of studios, and I met a few producers and started seeing the process of music being made. It made me question, “What is this?” I’d been only exploring piano and guitar at the time, and now you’re telling me I can do more than I’m already doing?