Nigerian songstress, Tems stars in Essence's September/October fashion issue of African beauty and elegance.
Tems who just completed her Born in The Wild tour, has revealed she had no intentions of becoming the pop star she is today.
In the latest issue, Tems dons in a golden satin headwrap, her face flawlessly glammed with her signature facebeat — straight 90s brow, cocoa-lined glossy lips, poppin’ eyes and a fabulously irresistible gaze.
When asked what she is looking forward to in the future of her career, and dreams…
Tems noted building her life for herself and she wants to be able to "make enough wealth to provide for not just myself, but for people that need me. And I want to have a family someday. I want to go to the mountains and make music and just be free, and go to the beach and just be free, and then go back and go to work and go sell some tea. I have ideas that I’m trying to act upon. I’m building up certain things right now, but that’s my personal goal.
She added, "I never, ever—at no point, from the beginning of my career—ever said, I want to be a pop star. I’m very focused on building the life that I want to live, and I don’t really need to share the details of what that is. When I close my eyes for the final time, I want to be proud of the life I lived. And that’s the journey that I’m on."
Speaking on her impulse to protect her identity as a Nigerian and how it has influenced her fashion sense, Tems said, "I feel like now, in the world, everybody wears many different things from different places. We’re not always wearing our traditional clothing that we’re used to wearing, from where we came from. But it doesn’t change who we are. I’m always going to be Nigerian. You have to show up as who you really are, in your blood. I know my culture: I’m Yoruba. And I know—if I was to get married tomorrow, I know the attire that we’re all wearing as a family. And anything that has to do with representing Nigeria always needs to reflect that. As a Nigerian, I feel emotional, which is what I think art should be. Art is emotion expressed."
