Nigerian music stars, Ayo Balogun and Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Wizkid and Tems respectively, were the biggest African winners at the 2022 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards ceremony, an annual award event to celebrate black excellence in music, culture and sports, held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, in the early hours of Monday.
The talented Nigerian songstress won in the Best International Act category, beating compatriot Fireboy, Dave from the UK, Dinos from France, Fally Ipupa from Congo, Little Simz from the UK, Ludmilla from Brazil, Major League Djz from South Africa, and Tayc from France, to clinch the coveted award.
While receiving the award, Tems, an advocate of women and girls’ rights, urged women to continue on their chosen path, as hard work usually pays off in the end.
“Thank you so much for this, thank you so much. It’s an honour… I mean, this is my first award show that I’m winning something and I just want to use this as an opportunity to speak to every single young, old, whatever, every single woman watching this, every single girl watching this at home. Where I’m from, things like this don’t happen,” the elated Tems said.
Wizkid also made history at the 2022 BET Awards when his super single ‘Essence,’ featuring Tems and Justin Bieber, won the Best Collaboration award and with that win, ‘Essence’ has become the first African song to win a BET Award, also making Wizkid the first Nigerian and African to win an award outside the Best International Acts category.
‘Essence’ dusted other songs in the category like ‘Every Change I Get’ by DJ Khaled ft Lil baby and Lil Durk; ‘Family Ties’ by Baby Seem ft Kenderick Lamar; ‘Whole Lotta’ by Bia ft Nicki Minaj; ‘Way 2 Sexy’, Drake ft Future and Young Thug, and ‘Kiss me More’ by Doja Cat ft SZA, to clinch the award.
Wizkid had previously won the BET Award when he featured on Beyonce’s ‘Brown Skin Girl.”
Before the win by Tems, other Nigerian acts who have won awards in the Best International Act include 2Baba, D’banj, Ice Prince, Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy.