‘I’d Have Been a Maths Teacher if Music Didn’t Work’

Grammy-winning singer tems“>Tems has revealed an alternative career she would have pursued if music didn’t work out for her on the global stage.

The revelation came during an interactive session she had with a fan on X (Twitter), where she entertained certain questions about her life and career.

Responding to a fan who asked, “If music didn’t work, what else do you think you would be doing today?” tems“>Tems wasted no time to embrace her academic background, and she responded with:

“I might have been an accountant or a mathematics teacher.”

This affinity for numbers makes sense, as the singer previously studied economics at Monash South Africa (now IIE MSA) in Johannesburg. She has often spoken about how she pursued a degree as a backup plan, even though she knew her true calling was music.

Before she achieved a global career in music, she had already created a backup path for herself; tems“>Tems once worked as a digital marketer in Lagos.

Later in January 2018, she was driven by a sense of divine direction, and she made a hard but decisive choice to quit her corporate job and focus on music as a new career path. She faced certain hurdles but was able to overcome them.

Just a few months after quitting, she released her self-produced debut single, ‘Mr. Rebel,’ in July 2018. Her career skyrocketed after her feature on wizkid“>Wizkid’s 2020 single ‘Essence,’ which, following the remix with Justin Bieber, peaked at Number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

tems“>Tems’ journey highlights the immense risk she took by leaving a stable, finance-adjacent job for a notoriously uncertain industry, a risk that has ultimately cemented her as one of Africa’s most successful musical exports.