Tems is currently having a swell time. And she has indeed come to terms with her new reality, however surreal, euphoric and out-of-this-world that may be. She has just clinched her second Golden Globe for the Best African Music Performance at the 67th Grammy Awards which held in Los Angeles, United States on Sunday, February 2. She won the award for her hit song, “Love Me Jeje”, which interpolates Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 hit with the same title.
It would be recalled that Tems and Drake won a Grammy in 2023 with “Wait for U.” However, the remarkable thing about Tem’s latest win is that she saw off other Afrobeats greats like Burna Boy, Yemi Alade, and Asake to win the highly -coveted award. That indeed sent shock waves across the camps of her competitors.
And since news of that groundbreaking feat broke, naysayers have thrown spanner into the works, casting shadows of doubts over the credibility of her win; thus rubbishing her well-deserved Grammy award and robbing it of the shine. They believe, erroneously though, that their favorites ought to have won the award.
This is indeed far from the truth. By achieving that feat, Tems, who was born Temilade Odeniyi, has not only etched her name in the Grammy Hall of Fame, she has also lived up to her name, Temilade, which in Yoruba, her natal language means “The Crown is mine.”
The crown was of course Tems and and was destined for it, what with her burning passion for music, her spending days and nights in the studio perfecting her craft as well as the confidence she exudes and the strings of achievements that predated the 67th Grammy. Prior to her win, Billboard had predicted she would win in that category
However, the questions many doubting Thomases who have yet to come to terms with her stupendous achievement are asking are: What is so special about her that she has been decorated with the highest award in the global music industry? What is so unique about the award-winning song that it edged out highly rated songs of her competitors? The reason for Tems’ win is not in the lack of competitiveness of those songs, but in the amount of work she has put in to hoe her skills and perfect her craft to make it different.
This is a lady whose vocal rendition is a mix of Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys spiced with a bit of Erica Badu. This is a lady who appeared on the music scene fully prepared , having spent her growing up years nurturing her talent and spending days and nights in the studio.
This is a lady whose peers made fun of her voice which they considered heavy and masculine and which she later turned into art.
“All the other girls had these sweet, high voices. And my voice had bass,” she once admitted.
This is a lady who likes to walk her own path and educes originality, what with her alternative music style and alto textured voice, Tems was a lone ranger, and that gave birth to her finding solitude in music at the tender age of 11.
“I used to write poems a lot – I’ll just sit down and write things I’m feeling, and it’ll come out so poetic, even if I’m just talking about breakfast,” she laughs. So then I just started writing songs, at around 11. Some were about me not having friends and some about my classmates saying I was weird.”
Talking about her spontaneity and the way she freestyles and composes songs on the spur of the moment,’ she once said: “I have no clue what’s going to come out. And I find myself saying weird things. Hurt feelings come out a lot. And when I play it back, it’s like, Oh, so this is how you feel.”
Still, a part of her weirdness has to do with her propensity for freestyling, her knack for creating songs out of the blue. Perhaps that explains the reason no one sounds like her. She sings as the Muse lead and directs. .
One thing that stirs the interest of many in the song is that it originated during a freestyle session she had with friends. In the course of freestyling one of his friends interpolated Sodimu’s “Love Me Jeje”. Tems loved the original track and chose to include it in her recording.of the song, which fused Afrobeats with elements of R&B. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
No mean feat? Sure. Tems herself acknowledged Sodimu’s contribution to her success story by expressing appreciation to him on X (formerly known as Twitter)
“I just want to say thank you to the wonderful @seyimusic for his role in the support and clearing of his OG song, Love Me Jeje. It brought the original song back to life for me and I’m glad that it’s getting its flowers today. A timeless classic. I appreciat you so much. Thank you for your love and support,” she enthused.
The origin of the song notwithstanding, Tems herself made entertainment capital from it by not just stirring the feelings of many who are carried away by Sodimu’s original version in the late 1990s, bringing back nostalgic memories but also making it come alive and quicken their bones and dance steps with a touch that is uniquely hers. Tems’song is itself a hit .
The grassroots-based visual which she herself directed is a testament to the fact tht it is an ode to ever-bubbling Lagos, the city known for its vibrancy, where she grew up and horned her craft. In the video, Tems is shown having fun with her friends at a karaoke bar. Later, she is seen singing and dancing in the streets of Lagos while riding a tricycle and standing in a moving truck.
The video also features evening scenes of the singer dancing with friends at a party and footage of Tems singing the song’s bridge with Sodimu.
At the end of the day, “Love Me Jeje” is a testament to the artiste’s spontaneous creativity, which makes her sound different , her unique voice, her identifying with the popular culture of the city in which she grew up and the uncanny way with which she stirs up endless evocative feelings.
And as the music opens with a slow, tender beat and rising in crescendo, one cannot but fall in love with the humanity and universality of the love song, “Love Me Jeje”, which in Pidgin lingo means “Love me gently”.
“I need your lovin’, so fresh, so clean/ Love me in and out, unfailingly,” the lyrics goes, making one think not only of much-needed love but also the pains that the absence of such love triggers. And the question then is: Who doesn’t need a tender touch of love?
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