4th June, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Grammy-winning Nigerian singer and songwriter, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems has said she is not interested in being a sex symbol, stressing that she is in the music industry to “work.”
Tems stated this while speaking on how she battled body dysmorphia at the beginning of her career, an interview with the YouTube content creator Korty EO.
The ‘Love Me Jeje’ hitmaker said she was initially upset about the appearance of her body.
Tems said it felt like it was stopping her from “achieving her goals” of making music because many men usually felt “seduced” by her.
The 28-year-old also said in order not to distract the opposite sex, she would always wear “baggy clothes” anytime she went to the studio.
“I used to not always like my body. If my being attractive is disturbing you, I will help you. So I go to studios in baggy clothes and my alpha mode, I want you not to be seduced by me,” Tems said.
Tems recently unveiled the tracklist for her highly anticipated debut album titled ‘Born In The Wild’, scheduled to be released on June 7.
In the 18-track album, Tems enlists Asake, the Afrobeats star, and J. Cole, the US rapper.
The tracks in the album consist of ‘Born In The Wild’, ‘Special Baby’, ‘Burning’, ‘Wickedest’, ‘Love Me Jeje’, ‘Get It Right’, ‘Ready’, and ‘Gangsta’.
Other tracks are ‘Unfortunate’, ‘Boy o Boy’, ‘Forever’, ‘Free Fall’, ‘Voices In My Head’, ‘Turn Me Up’, ‘Me & U’, ‘T-Unit’, ‘You In My Face’, and ‘Hold On’.
Tems had previously put out two songs off the album — ‘Me & U’ and ‘Love Me Jeje’.
The singer released her self-produced debut single ‘Mr Rebel’ in 2018 and then followed it with ‘Try Me’, her 2019 hit song.
Tems had earlier revealed how a “serious illness” forced her to delay the release of her debut album.