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… - Tems

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?

I think the perfectionism is definitely a Nigerian thing. For me, it’s definitely Lagos. Because if you check around the world, Nigerians are always the best at whatever they’re doing, whether that’s braids, hair, make-up, doctors… They’ll give you food and it’ll be over good, so that when you’re paying them, you know why.

What I hope that God does through me, is for the image of the African woman to be changed to something luxurious, or desired, or sought after. For the demand of the African woman to go up… Let us not be chasing foreign things, let us be something to be chased. And that can’t just happen with me; it’s a together thing. It has to happen with a whole industry of women already doing real and amazing things. That’s the future.