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
