Tems’ manager, Muyiwa Awoniyi, has said that the singer had just N200 in her bank account when they first met. He recently shared that he was friends with the singer for about three months before they started working together.
Speaking during an interview with Joey Akan on the Afrobeats Intelligence podcast, he disclosed that Tems’ dedication to her craft ultimately convinced him to work with her.
According to him, after they verbally agreed to work together as artist and manager, he sent her a contract to sign, and she shockingly signed immediately.
Muyiwa stated that he was stunned to see Tems chasing him to sign his own part of the contract because he was already used to Nigerian artists being very controversial when it comes to putting pen to paper.
The talent manager said that he had never experienced an artist chasing the manager to do his part, and that made him realize that she was different.
“There was something Tems did that made me say, ‘I don’t want to do a managerial contract with you, let’s do a company.’
When she asked me to be her manager, I agreed and said I would send her a contact to sign. We had already verbally agreed for everything. You know when you present paperwork for artists to sign, it’s always tricky. But she was chasing me to sign my own part. And I have never experienced that before.
I was like, ‘You don’t mind signing paperwork? Hold on, let’s not do this. You’re someone I can rock with for life. Let’s start a company.’ Prior to this, Tems and I were friends for about three months and we never spoke about working together,” he said.
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Awoniyi further revealed that Tems was constantly ordering food for him and his cousin despite not having enough money to even take care of herself.
He concluded by saying that he saw the uniqueness in the Grammy award-winning singer’s character, and that drew him to her music career.
“Back then when I was doing my podcast, she would just be sitting down while me and my cousin are talking.
Then obviously, she wasn’t financially buoyant in any capacity. When I met Tems, she only had like 200 Naira in her account. And then I had a production company.
So, if I had money, I would buy food. Another thing that shocked me was that even though she didn’t have money, she will order food for us. She didn’t even have a way of earning. So, I just realized that she is different from everyone I have seen in Nigeria,” he added.
