In what has been a wildly unanticipated, yet eventful night, Tems, the Nigerian singer and songwriter, has yet again made history. Tems’ Grammy win makes her the first female Nigerian artist to ever win a Grammy. The singer’s recognition came from her hit collaboration “Wait For You” where she worked with Future and Drake.
Tems, also known as Temilade Openiyi took the lead in the category for the Best Melodic Rap Performance. She outshone other nominated artists like Jack Harlow, Kendrick Lamar, DJ Khaled, and SZA.
As you can expect, Nigerians are nothing short of belated to see one of their own shine at such a prestigious event. They took to several social media platforms to express their excitement about Tems’ Grammy win and what it could mean for African music as a whole.
Even though Tems was not the only Nigerian to be nominated, she was the only one who won an award. The renowned African Giant, Burna Boy gained nominations in two separate categories. Burna Boy’s Last Last gained a Best Global Music Performance nomination. His album “Love, Damini” also received a nomination for the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album. However, he was beaten by other international stars who seemingly deserved the award more.
Nigerians had varying reactions to Burna Boy’s double loss. While this displeased some fans, most of them referred to it as a “teaching moment” to correct Burna Boy’s lateness to concerts and general bad behavior. Take a look at some hilarious takes.
Other Africans Who Shone At The 2023 Grammy Awards
Apart from Tems’ Grammy award win, the prestigious award show saw a lot of African star inclusions. This included the likes of South African icon, Trevor Noah, who hosted the show itself. Ghana’s Rocky Dawuni also made an appearance, although he lost out on a nomination for Best Global Music Performance.
Furthermore, Uganda’s Eddy Kenzo was present as well, making him the country’s first Grammy award nominee to date. The winners of the category for Best Global Music Performance were the South African stars Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini, and Nomcebo Zikode who outshone The African Giant in this category.
From all indications, African music is already significantly a global movement. If anything, Tems’ Grammy award win has solidified this even more. As the world falls more and more in love with our sound, who do you think will be the next artist to make Africa more visible on the map? Guess it’ll be Tems again? Or will the African Giant resurface to claim his throne?
Visit our ever-bubbling social media platform and let us know!