Nigerian singer and Grammy-winning artist, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has advised the global community to visit Lagos and Ghana before forming an opinion about Africa.
Speaking in an interview with Fashion Bomb Daily during the 2025 Met Gala in New York, Tems urged people to experience the rich culture of Africa firsthand instead of relying on inaccurate assumptions from those who have never set foot on the continent.
The Love Me Jeje singer emphasized that visitors need to see Lagos and Ghana for themselves to truly understand and appreciate life on the continent. According to her, the true essence of Africa is expressed in its creativity, culture, and daily life.
She said, “I always encouraged people to go to Lagos and Ghana for vacation. Just go and see for yourself before you make an opinion [about Africa]. See it for yourself and see how you feel. I think it [the beauty of Africa] is in the creativity, the daily efforts, the looks, the songs, the traditions and the cultures.”
Tems also challenged the narrow global view that African music is limited to Afrobeats. She highlighted the diversity of sounds coming from the continent, naming genres like Amapiano, Afrosoul, R&B, and Afro Jazz as part of Africa’s vast musical landscape.
“We [Africans] can go further in every single aspect of sound. We are not just Afrobeats. There is Amapiano, Afrosoul, R&B, Afro Jazz. There are so many genres in African music that people are not all the way tapped into yet,” she said.
Tems has also been announced as one of the Nigerian nominees for the 2025 BET Awards. While Ayra Starr leads the pack with three nominations, Tems follows closely with two nominations in the BET Her category for her powerful tracks “Burning” and “Hold On” from her debut album Born In The Wild.
Other Nigerian stars such as Burna Boy, Rema, and Shallipopi also made the nominations list, alongside South Africa’s Tyla and Uncle Waffles, Ghana’s Black Sherif, and Tanzania’s Abigail Chams.
