Tems shares her Essence During Her DMV Stop of the “Born In The Wild” Tour
Shot by: Kenny Bundy
From the moment that the Nigerian born beauty Tems announced that she would be mounting her very first world tour in support of her latest album “Born In The Wild,” we already knew that it was going to be a hot ticket item.
Sunday, September 1 served as her DMV date of the trek, and as expected, it was a packed, sold-out show! Upon walking into The Anthem, DJ K-Meta already had the Caribbean and Afro beats vibes flowing in the theater, so the mood was pretty much already being set for what we were about to experience.
At approximately 8 PM Dutch singer-songwriter Naomi Sharon appeared from the shadows of the dark and onto center stage. I’ll be honest, this was the first time that I had even heard of her as an artist, so I had prepared myself to fully discover her in the purest form ever. Outfitted in a sleek black latex jumpsuit, the songbird made it evidently clear why she deserved to be on this tour. In 2023, Sharon released her debut studio album entitled “Obsidian,” so it was only natural that she would perform some of the cuts from that project.
“Time And Trust,” and “If This Is Love” were two of the standout tracks that totally piqued my interest because they inherited an eclectic feel. Although she considers herself as “genre-defying”, she creates music that is really soothing and appeasing to the ears and the soul. The message in “Celestial” is one that we should all take a cue from, and that’s learning how to have patience in life and waiting on God to move within your life and personal realm. To close out her set, she performed “Another Life.”
Shot by: Kenny Bundy
After about an hour-long intermission to allow for a set changeover, Tems’ intro played around 9:23 PM, with “Crazy Tings” officially serving as the first song. Going along with the in the wild theme, the stage was dressed to resemble the wildlife of her native home, with Coconut grass all over. Regardless of the setting that she was trying to portray, Tems looked like a million bucks in a form fitting red jumper that helped compliment her beautiful glowing skin.
With one studio album and two EP’s worth of music to choose from, there were 20 songs featured in the setlist. The initial handful of songs “Avoid Things,” “Replay,” and “Damages” were all lifted from her first two projects that were released during the height of the pandemic. If you think about it, that was only four years ago, which isn’t exactly a long period of time, but the way that Tems commands the stage and performs with confidence and ease, one would think that she’s been at this for more than that. The professionalism showed through because she even mentioned that she had a cold, but was going to continue to give it her all since we were the loudest crowd that she’s played to thus far.
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- Shot by: Kenny Bundy
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- Shot by: Kenny Bundy
So much credit has to be given to this talented young woman for putting on one of the first shows in a while where a generous portion of the music had been upbeat and promoting all around great vibes, and despite my feet hurting, dancing the whole night. “Wickedest,” “Turn Me Up,” and “Gangsta,” were all crowd pleasers while “Mr. Rebel” was an ode to her day one fans. Hands down my favorite song of the night was “Forever” for the fact that it reminded me of an updated 80s love song. All of her material was brought to life by an amazing five-member band and two background vocalists that retained the original integrity of her music, but added this extra funk on top of it that couldn’t be explained in words.
Being that she’s a performer for the people, Tems made her way down into the crowd and sang to a male audience member named Dami, who she later found out was also Nigerian and joked by saying she “f*cked around and found her Nigerian prince.” The feel-good energy rode all the way to the end of the concert, which is where all of the hits resided as “Love Me JeJe” flowed seamlessly into “Essence“, falling into “Me & U” and ultimately ending with “Free Mind.”
