Temilade Openiyi, a native of Nigeria, took home the Best International Act award at the 2022 BET Awards.
On Sunday, June 26, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, the award ceremony celebrating Black excellence in music, entertainment, and athletics took place.
Tems was nominated in this category along with fellow Nigerian musician Fireboy, Dave from the UK, Dinos from France, Fally Ipupa from the Congo, Little Simz from the UK, Ludmilla from Brazil, Major League Djz from South Africa, and Tayc from France.
In her appreciation speech, Tems encouraged other women and girls to stay on their chosen paths.
“Thank you so much for this, thank you so much. It’s an honour… I mean, this is my first award show that I’m winning something, and I just want to use this as an opportunity to speak to every single young, old, whatever, every single woman watching this, every single girl watching this at home. Where I’m from, things like this don’t happen.”
At the 2022 BET Awards, Tems also won for Best Collaboration with Wizkid’s “Essence,” which features Justin Bieber.
Essence was nominated against ‘Every Change I Get’ by DJ Khaled ft Lil baby and Lil Durk; ‘Family Ties’ by Baby Seem ft Kendrick Lamar; ‘Whole Lotta’ by Bia ft Nicki Minaj; ‘Way 2 Sexy’, Drake ft Future and Young Thug, and ‘Kiss me More’ by Doja Cat ft SZA.