Nigerian artiste Tems has opened up about how fame has drastically changed her daily routine, impacting even little areas of her life like being able to drive herself around Lagos.
In a podcast interview with Big Boy TV in the US, the Me and U singer stated that her fame occasionally makes it more difficult for her to travel across Nigeria.
When asked if she’s well known in Nigeria, Tems responded, “I am very famous at home, so I can’t go anywhere.”
She continued, “And we have area boys, and they know who I am, so I can’t drive anywhere. I used to try to drive before but I almost got mobbed last year because I attempted to drive myself. Now I have to have police cars in front and at the back, and if I want to drive myself, there must be police driving behind me. If in trying to live a normal life again and feel normal, I have to have police escorts in front and at the back if I’m in Nigeria. If I say I want to be behind the wheel and feel like a normal girl, I can’t.”
The Afrobeat star also opened up about her personal journey adapting to fame, admitting it hasn’t always been easy, especially because of her introverted nature.
She admitted, “I didn’t take it well at first, the fame. After some time I just wanted some alone time in the industry, so I and wanted to go back to my room and be alone. Even with my team, adapting to having to talk and have conversations was strange because I never had to do that before so I didn’t take it well at all. I was very blunt, rude… I wouldn’t say rude, but I’d say things that were obvious, but I wasn’t meant to say them.”
Tems explained how she even used to confront people who said wrong things about her, not knowing that she was not supposed to do things like that anymore as a famous person.
“When I hear someone say something about me, I would go to them and be like, ‘do we have a problem? are we okay?’ and then I was told that I wasn’t supposed to confront people,” she said.
She added, “I’m a quiet person, but because someone was spreading rumours about me, I just wanted to know why. Some of these people were like big in couldn’t walk up to them. I had to learn everything from the beginning.”
Author: Joy Gofwen
Lagos, Bureau Chief,
Nigeria
