Tems Wins First-ever Grammy, As Burna Boy Loses In Two Categories

By Yinka Akanbi

Nigerian singer, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has won her first-ever Grammy Award at the 65th edition of the global award for music.

Tems earned this exemplary honour for her contribution to Future’s ‘Wait For U,’ which also featured Drake.

The song won in the category of Best Melodic Rap Performance, ahead of artistes like Latto (“Big Energy (Live)”, Jack Harlow (“First Class”), Kendrick Lamar (“Die Hard”), and DJ Khaled (“Beautiful”).

With this win, the 27-year-old vocal powerhouse just made history as the first home-based female Nigerian artiste to win the highly-coveted award.

Nigerian-born British songstress, Sade Adu, won the Grammy in 1986 with her debut album, ‘Sade’.

Tems has made a big impression with her music since her rise to fame. Recall that TCN reported how the singer scored an Oscar nomination at the 2023 Oscars for co-writing ‘Lift Me Up’, one of the songs on ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’.

‘Wait For U’ sampled Tems’ song ‘Higher’, which was a record off of her 2020 debut album For Broken Ears. ‘Wait For U’ was released on May 3, 2022, and was released as the second single from Future’s ninth studio album, ‘I Never Liked You’.

Meanwhile, Nigerian Grammy award winner, Burna Boy’s hopes of adding another plaque to his award cabinet was dashed after he lost in the two categories he was nominated. He lost the Best Global Song performance for which ‘Last Last’ was nominated and Best Global Album for which ‘Love, Damini’ was nominated.

The 65th annual Grammy awards, which held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, USA saw major wins for Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Adele and Beyoncé.

Here is the list of winners:

Album of the year
Harry Styles – Harry’s House

Best new artist
Samara Joy

Record of the year
Lizzo – About Damn Time

Song of the year
Bonnie Raitt – Just Like That

Best pop solo performance
Adele – Easy on Me

Best dance/electronic album
Beyoncé – Renaissance

Best rap album
Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers

Best musica urbana album
Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti

Best pop duo/group performance
Sam Smith and Kim Petras – Unholy

Best country album
Willie Nelson – A Beautiful Time

Best R&B song
Beyoncé – Cuff It

Best pop vocal album
Harry Styles – Harry’s House

Best dance/electronic recording
Beyoncé – Break My Soul

Best global music performance
Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini & Nomcebo Zikode – Bayethe

Best country solo performance
Willie Nelson – Live Forever

Best R&B performance
Muni Long – Hrs & Hrs

Best melodic rap performance
Future – ‘WAIT FOR U’ ft. Tems, Drake

Best rap performance
Kendrick Lamar – The Heart Part 5

Best metal performance
Ozzy Osbourne Featuring Tony Iommi – Degradation Rules

Best rock performance
Brandi Carlile – Broken Horses

Best rock album
Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9

Best alternative music album
Wet Leg – Wet Leg

Best traditional R&B performance
Beyoncé – Plastic Off the Sofa

Best progressive R&B album
Steve Lacy – Gemini Rights

Best R&B album
Robert Glasper – Black Radio III

Best rap song
Kendrick Lamar – The Heart Part 5

Best comedy album
Dave Chappelle – The Closer

Best folk album
Madison Cunningham – Revealer

Best country song
Cody Johnson – ‘Til You Can’t