Inside Africa: Nigeria’s Tems Carries Afrobeats To New Heights, But She Cannot Do It Alone

Adrienne Raquel

She describes herself as “more on the Ajebutter side” (to be rich/sheltered in Nigerian slang), and there is a reserved shyness to her in public appearances. When she won the Grammy for Best African Musical Performance this year, she humbly praised God, and her mother, for her success. Tems carries Nigeria’s Afrobeats scene to historic heights. She is the first Nigerian to win twice, including the first Nigerian to receive this award, and the only Nigerian woman to hold a Grammy.

Among eight nominations, the song which won her a second Grammy, ‘Love Me Jeje’, has over 127 million streams on Spotify and 21 million views on YouTube. It speaks not just to Tems as an artist, but also to Nigeria’s music scene. ‘Love me Jeje, love me tender’ is a household phrase in Nigeria, after the hook of Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 hit of the same name, a Nigerian classic. Tems said herself with a coy laugh “All the old heads in Nigeria, they love this song.”

Seyi Sodimu is one of many artists to have developed Nigeria’s national sound: Afrobeats. The genre was pioneered in the 1970s by Fela Kuti, who was heavily influenced from the American Funk scene and African Jazz and rhythms. Kuti had spent some time in the US, returning to Nigeria with an original voice and funky flair, and quickly rose to become one of Africa’s most influential musicians.

Initially influenced by the Black Panther’s, Fela Kuti’s Afrobeats was a tool to address political and social issues Nigeria faced in the decades after the Biafran War, such as poverty, unemployment, corruption and authoritarianism. This tradition has continued across the years, notably present today in artists such as Burna Boy, whose lyrics speak of police brutality and corruption, or Davido, who was especially active during 2020’s #EndSARS movement, an activism campaign against police brutality.

Yet, through time, the genre has also taken inspiration from Hip-Hop and Blues, as well as pop music and RnB. Tems said in one interview: “Afrobeats in Nigeria is specifically for escapism, it’s specifically for dancing, specifically for vibes. It’s specifically made for that purpose. […] It’s made to bring you alive and forget about your worries and enjoy.”

This is why Afrobeats is so beloved, not just in Nigeria, but across the globe. The president Bola Tinubu claimed after Tems’ win: “From Africa to Antarctica, Asia to Australia, Europe to the Americas, the Nigerian music industry, particularly Afrobeats has become a source of national pride, promoting a sense of identity and self-expression while uniting people across borders.” He is not wrong.

Afrobeats is one of the fastest growing music genres worldwide. Since 2017, streams on Spotify have grown by 550%. The recognition Tems brings to the genre only promotes its growth. As Goerge Irabor, a producer also known as SirBastien, told AFP: “These Grammy awards are important because they reinforce Nigeria’s reputation as a leading force in music. […] This recognition attracts more investors and global interest.”

PwC, a consulting firm, estimates that Afrobeats’ contribution to the global music industry is roughly $2 billion, which is a share of almost 8%. In 2022, Nigerian artists generated 11 billion Naira from Spotify. PwC has projected in a recent report that Nigeria’s entertainment and media sector will grow by more than 50% in coming years and could rise to almost $20bn by 2028.

With an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% in the coming years, Nigeria’s Music, Radio and podcast industry is projected to become one of the leading sectors of the country’s economy. As a cultural asset, Afrobeats plays a crucial role in driving growth across the creative industries, including media, film, and fashion, while also boosting tourism.

It's why Matthew Ohio, a ‘veteran’ producer of the genre, told Le Monde: “In the same way we earn money with petrol, we could earn money with music”, referring to Nigeria’s oil industry, the economy’s biggest asset. When he said it though, Ohio wasn’t under the influence of inspired optimism. Rather, he signalled a major problem in Nigeria’s music scene.

Though Afrobeats is believed to have generated as much as $100 million in 2023, Nigeria itself only received a fraction of the profits. Domestically, Nigeria still struggles to meet international music production standards due to a lack of funds. Recording equipment is often outdated, access to instruments can be scarce and generally, it is more difficult to attain adequate studio facilities. This results in many successful artists, notably WizKid and Burna Boy, to sign contracts abroad with international labels that can offer the best recording equipment.

And the same goes for concerts. Nigerian venues are not always well equipped and often smaller than concert halls in Europe, America, or Asia. For artists making music in the era of streaming, concert revenues are a vital source of income, especially less well-known musicians who don’t reach millions of streams. Performing abroad generates a lot of revenue for artists, also because they are paid in foreign currencies.

To give an example, during a concert Burna Boy gave in Boston in March 2024, he generated over 1.5 million dollars, the highest profit an African artist has ever made in the US. Burna Boy claimed on Twitter in 2021: “I don’t make money in Nigeria.” It was controversial to many from his native country, but most of his peers wouldn’t disagree.

Nigeria’s music industry has been pleading the government to consider grants, tax incentives, and lower interest on loans to Nigerian music studios and concert promoters, to subsidise the industry and continue promoting Afrobeats, which is currently still held back by too high production costs.

Temilade Openiyi, aka Tems, also went on tour in 2024 with the release of her new album ‘Born in the Wild’. She appeared in venues across Europe, the US, and Australia. 1Official, a Nigerian media outlet, claimed she made over $1 million in the US alone. It might seem like a move away from Nigeria, which has seen an alarming ‘brain-drain’ over the past decade, but it certainly does ring true to her Nigerian origins. In Yoruba, the tribe Temilade comes from, her name has an assertive meaning: ‘mine is the crown’.