Nigerian singer Tems wins African Music Performance Award at Grammys 2025

Her winning song Love Me JeJe interpolates Seyi Sodiumu's track of the same name

Tems receives the Best African Music Performance award for Love Me JeJe. Reuters

Tems has won the African Music Performance Award at this year's Grammys.

The Nigerian singer was honoured for her Afrobeats hit Love Me JeJe, an interpolation of Seyi Sodimu's 1997 song of the same name. She performed the song for the first time during her Coachella set in April, ahead of the release of her debut album Born in the Wild in May.

“My heart is beating so fast. I'm so sorry – I do work out, but it's not showing up right now,” the singer joked in her acceptance speech.

“Dear God, thank you so much for putting me on this stage and bringing me this team. And tomorrow is my mum's birthday. This is her first Grammys. I just want to thank you, Mum, because she's really done a lot for me and my brother. Happy birthday, Mum.”

Tems has now won two Grammys, the most of any Nigerian artist to date. AP

Tems, 29, now has more Grammy awards than any other Nigerian artist, winning Best Melodic Rap Performance in 2023 for the song Wait For U with American hip-hop stars Future and Drake. Fellow Nigerian artists Burna Boy, Wizkid and Siriku Adepoju each have one Grammy each.

This year Tems overcame competition from a number established artists in the African Music Performance Award category, including Burna Boy, Chris Brown, Davido, Lojay, Asake, Wizkid and Yemi Alade. Apart from the American singer Chris Brown, all other nominated artists are from Nigeria, a sign of the West African country's current dominance in the continent's musical sphere, particularly on the international stage.

Love Me Jeje has found success across the world, earning 150 million streams to date on Spotify. Tems also performed the song on the American late-night talk show The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. She also performed it during her headline set at Dubai's Sole DXB in December.

The song was also nominated for the Afrobeats prize at the 2024 MTV Music Awards and is nominated for Best International Song at the upcoming NCAAP Image Awards, a category that Tems won in 2023 for her song No Woman No Cry from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack and in 2024 for her song Me & U.

This is the second year that the African Music Performance Award category has been included at the Grammys. Both prizes have now been given to women after South African Tyla won for her song Water last year.