Tems has opened up about the challenges that accompany achieving success, revealing her thoughts during a recent conversation with Kendrick Lamar for Interview magazine.
Speaking candidly about her newfound fame, she acknowledged the pressure that success brings and shared her strategy for handling it while staying authentic to herself.
She expressed, “When you become more known or seen, it’s very easy to get caught up in, ‘What do people expect of me now?’ But for me, it’s like, ‘What do I expect of myself now?’ Because you’re the one that has to live with yourself, the one that has to sleep with the decisions that you make. Trusting yourself is so key, and I’m not going to stop trusting my guts just because people can see me now. It’s like being in a zoo. The animals don’t change their behaviour just because you’re looking at them. They’re always going to be who they are. So why should I change?”
The singer-songwriter, who received an Oscar nomination for her co-writing contribution to Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up,” also shared valuable advice applicable to both artists and fans. She stressed the importance of remembering one’s initial motivations to stay on the right path.
Tems emphasized, “Yeah, you have to remember how you felt when you started as an artist, to understand the reason you’re doing what you’re doing. Yes, it’s to be seen, or to make a name for yourself, but beyond that, why are you doing it? Most of the time, it’s because you have a story to share, a message to give.”
Tems has made significant strides since her For Broken Ears EP release in 2020. Her achievements include surpassing one billion streams on Spotify, contributing to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, and collaborating with prominent figures like Drake and Beyoncé.
Currently, she’s working on her debut album, cementing her position as a rising star in the music industry.