As the winners of the Grammy were announced on Sunday night, it was confirmed that the Nigerian singer Tems won the Best African Music Performance Grammy after her song Love Me Jeje was nominated for the award, she was nominated alongside Nigerian musician Yemi Alade, Burna Boy and Wizkid
Tems who took to the stage to take the award spoke emotionally explaining that her heartbeat had changed after it started beating so fast.
Tems is now the second person to win the category, which was introduced a year ago. Different categories of people highly welcomed the introduction of the category, with the notion that the enlistment would have a great impact on African music.
The edition of the event was faced with many controversies as US R&B star Chris Brown was one of the nominees – for his song Sensational, the song had featured the likes of Davido and Lojay who are both Nigerian singers.
The exceptional feelings of Tems were seen when she took to the stage after her name was called as the winner in Los Angeles on Sunday.
She explained that she has been engaging in so many workout activities but it was not showing at the moment due to her excitement.
While speaking on the award the Nigerian 29-year-old praised her mother and thanked her her putting up a strong team which has helped in the achievement of success.
“Wow, dear God thank you so much for putting me on this stage and bringing this team, and tomorrow is my mum’s birthday and this is her first Grammys.
“I just want to thank you, Mum,” she said gesturing towards her, “because she has done a lot for me and my brother.”
The song Love Me Jaje, which was first sampled in Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 Nigerian classic of the same name. The song has gotten 125 million listens on Spotify and 21 million views on YouTube.
Tems has now become the first Nigerian to have won two Grammys, she first won the Best Melodic Rap Performance in 2023 for featuring on Future’s hit Wait For U.
After the announcement on Sunday, the singer was applauded by the president of the country Bola Tinubu who put the country on a global map and brought pride to the nation for the second time.
The singer was also nominated for two other categories – Best Global Music Album for Born in the Wild and Best R&B Song for Burning. Across her career, she has now received eight nominations in all which has been a remarkable feat for Nigerian.
Tems has been known on the global stage after her debut in 2018 when she produced and released her debut single Mr Rebel.
