Grammy-winning Nigerian singer Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, came from a beginning so humble that she had only N200 in her bank account when she met her manager, Muyiwa Awoniyi.
Muyiwa made this revelation on a recent episode of the Afrobeats Intelligence podcast.
Sharing the story of how he met Tems and what made him decide to enter into a business relationship with her, Muyiwa said the singer is different from anyone he has ever met in Nigeria.
According to Muyiwa, Tems was very generous towards him when they first met, despite having no actual means of earning an income.
He said, “Back then when I was doing my podcast, she would just be sitting down while me and my cousin are talking.
“Then obviously, she wasn’t financially buoyant in any capacity. When I met Tems, she only had about 200 Naira in her account.
“Then I had a production company. So, if I had money, I would buy food. Another thing that shocked me was that even though she didn’t have money, she will order food for us. She didn’t even have a way of earning.
“So, I just realised that she is different from everyone I have seen in Nigeria.”
Speaking further, Muyiwa said Tems’ determination and dedication particularly caught his attention. He added that her eagerness to formalise their working relationship made him realise he wanted to have a business relationship with her for life.
He said: “There was something Tems did that made me say, ‘I don’t want to do a managerial contract with you, let’s do a company.’
“When she asked me to be her manager, I agreed and said I would send her a contract to sign. We had already verbally agreed on everything. You know, when you present paperwork for artists to sign, it’s always tricky. But she was chasing me to sign my own part. And I have never experienced that before.
“I was like, ‘You don’t mind signing paperwork? Hold on, let’s not do this. You’re someone I can rock with for life. Let’s start a company.’ Prior to this, Tems and I were friends for about three months and we never spoke about working together.”
