Tems, the Nigerian singer and songwriter, has opened up on how she battled body dysmorphia at the beginning of her career.
Body dysmorphia disorder is a mental illness involving obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance.
During an interview with the YouTube content creator Korty EO, the ‘Me And You’ hitmaker said she was initially upset about the appearance of her body.
She said it felt like it was stopping her from “achieving her goals” of making music because many men usually felt “seduced” by her.
The 28-year-old also said in order not to distract the opposite sex, she would always wear “baggy clothes” anytime she went to the studio.
“I used to not always like my body, crazy as it seems. I just did not understand a lot of things, I was going to a lot of studios alone. Meeting people I have never met, meeting people that do not know me, I was unknown,” she said.
“I would message people saying I have been working on this, I want to share this because I know I have something. I can help, I want to learn how to produce maybe I will produce for people because of my objective which was I just want to make music.
“I do not really care about politics or anything here, I just want to learn, I want to be here to learn and if me being attractive is disturbing and stopping me from achieving my goals, I am going to help you. So when I go to the studio, I wear baggy clothes and I am in my alpha mode.
“Because I do not want you to be seduced by me and I am not going to be like it is your choice. Yes, it is your choice if you want to be seduced but when I am around, just let us work. Most of the time it works because they can tell, she is just here to work.”
The songstress earlier claimed that many men only want sex in relationships.
Tems rose to fame in 2020 following her collaboration with Wizkid on the hit song ‘Essence’.
She released her debut EP ‘For Broken Ears’ in the same year.
In 2023, Tems won her first Grammy award in the ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’ category for her role in ‘Wait for U’, a song by Future featuring Drake.
In March, she was honoured with the ‘Breakthrough Award’ at the Billboard Women in Music Awards.
Her debut album ‘Born in the Wild’, featuring J. Cole and Asake, is set for release on June 7.
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