Three months after she earned three Grammy nominations, Temilade ‘Tems’ Openiyi has received an Oscar nomination for ‘Lift Me Up’, a soundtrack off Marvel’s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, in the ‘Best Original Song’ category of the 2023 Academy Awards held on January 24, 2023.
The Nigerian songstress has been making global strides one song at a time. On November 15, 2022, she earned three Grammy nominations for her feature on Future’s Grammy-nominated single ‘Wait For U’ featuring Drake, and Beyonce’s Grammy-nominated album ‘Renaissance’.
In the same year, she earned her fourth Billboard Hot 100 single with the song ‘Free Mind’ and became the first African female musician to win the Best International Act at the BET Awards.
Tems’ worldwide recognition has also continued to soar, not least because of her international collaborations. Recently, popular American rapper Snopp Dog had to ask for a feature with her.
“So Tems, when we gonna make a record, you know I’m a fan. Girl, you be having my whole family dancing to your s**t” the rapper said.
Although a joint project with Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson, Tems, together with Ryan Coogler, is credited with the lyrics for ‘Lift Me Up’. No doubt, ‘Lift Me Up’ adds to the overall mastery of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ which earned four nominations at the Oscar event.
Tems is now in the running to win the Grammy’s ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’, ‘Best Rap Song’, ‘Album of the Year’ and, of course, Oscar’s ‘Best Original Song’.