Tems Wins First Grammy Award, Burna Boy Loses

Nigerian Superstar, Tems, has bagged her first Grammy award in the 2023 ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’ category.

Tems won the award for her vocal and writing contribution to the smashing hit ‘Wait For U’ by Future featuring Drake and herself, making it her first Grammy award win after four nominations.

The 2022 track won out over songs from other artists including Jack Harlow (“First Class”), Kendrick Lamar (“Die Hard”), Latto (“Big Energy (Live)”), and DJ Khaled (“Beautiful”).

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In addition to his two nominations in the category (for “Wait for U” and “Pushin P”), Future is nominated for Best Rap Album with I Never Liked You; Tems is also up for Album of the Year for her work on Beyoncé’s Renaissance.

Temilade Openiyi, born 11 June 1995, known professionally as Tems, is a Nigerian singer-songwriter. 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.”

On 25 September 2020, she released her debut extended play, For Broken Ears. Tems released her second extended play, If Orange Was a Place (2021), after being signed to RCA Records. In 2022, Tems’ vocals from her song “Higher” were sampled by Future on his single, “Wait for U”, which led to her being credited as a featured artist alongside Drake on the song. It debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first African artist to debut at number one and the second Nigerian artist to top the chart

Meanwhile, Burna Boy, lost the ‘Best Global Music Album’ and the ‘Best Global Music Performance’ categories.

Somto Bisina