Tems | Before They Were Famous | Rising Star of Afrobeats

Before becoming a part of the next wave of Afrobeat hitmakers, the artist known as Tems was born Temilade Openiyi on June 11th, 1995 in Lagos, Nigeria. With her father being British Nigerian, Tems and her family moved to London when she was still just a baby. Still, they’d return to Nigeria some four years later where her parents got divorced shortly thereafter. From that point forward, Tems was raised alongside her brother, Tunji, by their mother in the neighborhood in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. On Sunday everyone would attend the same local church and everyone in their community always seemed to know everyone else. With Lagos being such a big city and Tems having a quiet demeanor, she often felt alone in the midst of the sprawling capital and so she began writing poetry as a means to deal with her complicated emotions