Tems tells Apple Music about ‘Love Me JeJe’, how it came to be, and what fans can expect from her upcoming album

Tems joins Eddie Francis on Apple Music 1 to talk about her new song ‘Love Me JeJe’ out now. Tems talks about how she came up with the new single, how it was a collaborative effort amongst her friends. She reveals that her mother loves the song and that it’s inspired by a Nigerian classic.

Also, Tems gives fans a glimpse into what they can expect from her upcoming album, ‘Born in the Wild’.

Tems tells Apple Music about the love she gets from people

Eddie Francis: There’s this certain reaction you get from people where like people love you. It’s not even just a like. Does that get weird? Because we feel like we know you and we don’t know you and you don’t know us.

Tems: I think I’m used to it. I don’t know why though. Always I’m like, “Do you really feel this way? Why? Why do you like me?” I don’t know, but I think I’m used to it now.

Eddie Francis: Like when they see you, it’s like, “Oh my God, it’s Tems.” And I’ve talked to you before and I know you’re really on energy and spirituality and I know you got to feel it. When did you realize you have a different kind of relationship with people that are fans of your music?

Tems: I think it’s just the reaction and in real life, the amount of emotion, there’s just this energy that feels pure that I get all the time. And I was like, “Yo, this is not normal. This is not normal.” It is different if it’s like, “Oh yeah. I think you’re just so cool.” And that might be the case, but I don’t know. It’s so much love sometimes, I just, I don’t, it’s just wild.

Tems on the creation of her new song, ‘Love Me JeJe’

So, basically, I went out to dinner with my girls, with my friends, two of my friends. We’re just like, “Oh, let’s just do a cute dinner. It’s going to be cute.” And afterwards, my friends are always telling me, you never show us your Tems side. Everybody else, yeah, you’re Tems, but my friends don’t feel like I am when I’m there. It’s just like, I’m this girl. So they’re like, “Oh, you never take us to the studio. We don’t even know if you are like… Are you a doppelganger? Are you like, what is that?” So I said, “Okay, tonight we’re going to the studio and you people, you are going to sing?” So they were like, “Oh my god, crazy. What?” So we went to the studio and two of my producers, they made this beat, Spax and Guilty and they sent it to me as a challenge like, “Oh. Yeah, I’m sure you can’t do Nigerian. I am sure you can’t do this jam.”

So, I was like, I just had it in the back. So I played it and I told my friends, “Yeah, lets all freestyle, take turns. Oh yeah, you do freestyle, you…” So one of my friends did ‘Love Me Jeje’, ‘Love Me Tender’. And then my other friend was just screaming as well. And I was like, “Actually this is a mad vibe. I love this vibe. I’m going to keep this in the song.” And I did my own freestyle and it just was such a cute vibe and I wanted to pay tribute to the actual song ’cause I love that song. My mom loves that song. “Love Me Jeje.” The original song is from Seyi Sodimu. The original song is called ‘Love Me Jeje’ as well and it’s a Nigerian classic and it just felt right.

Tems on the term ‘JeJe’ and what it means

‘JeJe’ is African and Jeje also just means the concept of the song ‘Love Me JeJe’, ‘Love Me Tender’, it just means love me softly, take your time with, love me unconditionally and show me good love. That’s what it means. So, that’s the idea of ‘Love Me JeJe’.

Tems on ‘NEPA’ and what that means when she uses it in the song

‘NEPA’ is, so basically ‘NEPA’ is the electricity company in Nigeria. And basically, we don’t always have 24 hours electricity. So when there’s lights or when the electricity comes back on, there’s this like, everybody, you just hear your neighbours shouting, “Hey, there’s electricity now.” So you turn me on like the electricity, I’m back on, you electrify me, basically.

Tems on what fans can expect from her next album, ‘Born in the Wild’

‘Born in the Wild’ is actually about my journey. It’s about my experience as me and about the experiences I’ve had so far. And it really felt like the life I lived before, the life I was accustomed to felt like a wilderness. And it’s not really more so, yes, I was raised in Lagos and that’s a part of me, but it’s not really about the place, it’s more about the state of being. It was a wilderness in the environment I lived in and there’s so many things that happened and so many lessons I learned to come and be this person now. It is basically coming out of the wilderness. So that’s basically what ‘Born in the Wild’ is about.

I’ve had to step back a bit to make sure or to check in with myself that I’m being true and also just find healing from all the trauma. Everything I experienced before Tems, I think I had to unlearn a lot of things. And this album is just, it is just a new way of me expressing myself while still centering who I am in it.