Talented singer, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has emerged winner of the Best International Act at the BET Awards 2022, making it the second time the singer hit the stage.
The Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer was nominated with other talented acts such as Fireboy, Dave from the UK, Dinos from France, Fally Ipupa from Congo, Little Simz from the UK, Ludmilla from Brazil, Major League Djz from South Africa, and Tayc from France.
This is the first international award Tems is receiving for her own record while for the night, she already received an award for her record with Wizkid and Justin Bieber.
With her win at the 2022 BET awards, Tems joins Ice Prince, Wizkid, Davido, and Burna Boy as Nigerians who have won the BET Awards.
In receiving the award, Tems gave a brief speech dedicating her award to every young woman striving to one day live their dreams.
She said: “Thank you so much for this, thank you so much. It’s an honor… I mean, this is my first award show that I’m winning something and I just want to use this as an opportunity to speak to every single young, old, whatever, every single woman watching this, every single girl watching this at home. Where I’m from, things like this don’t happen”.
Tems had a great 2021 with her contributions on WIzkid’s ‘Essence’ earning her wide international acclaim. Tems also appeared on Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ album which further proved her status as one of Nigeria’s biggest international export.
Tems announces her return after musical break
It can be recalled that Tems, who was recently reported to have gone on a musical break after being diagnosed with reflux laryngitis, finally announced new dates for her comeback.
Tems announced that though she was supposed to host a musical show in June 22, 2022, she had to postpone it further because she was still not fully recovered. She announced that her two London shows will now happen on July 19 and July 28, 2022 respectively while her other show in Birmingham has also been postponed to July 21.
Well, anybody who has been listening to afro-beats over the last year or so has heard Tems’ deep, velvety voice, whether it be the chart-topping hit song, ‘Essence’ where she featured alongside Wizkid, or her debut EP ‘For Broken Ears’, or even her most recent EP ‘If Orange Was a Place’.
Although it seems like her rise to the top happened overnight, the sultry singer started singing when she was about 13 years old and producing when she was 20.
Tems discussed how she started making music with Hot 97 in 2021. The 27-year-old songstress told the hosts she met someone who allowed her to use his studio and that she actually didn’t know a thing about the industry at the time. When she first posted her music online, she felt her rise to fame was slow and gradual.
However, later in that same year, after the release of her debut EP, she spoke with Apple Music about how quickly things had changed.
“It’s all happening so fast, there’s just so many things that have happened, trying to take some time to take it all in, and be grateful for all this grace and all the blessings,” Tems told Apple music.
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