Temmie Ovwasa, the queer artiste popularly known as YBNL princess says that she wanted to have sex with her girlfriend to a queer Nigerian song which became one of the reasons for her recent album, E Be Like Say Dem Swear For Me!.
Temmie made this known in a recent interview with Okay Africa. Osunwemimo and 37 Times are both tracks on the album that deeply expressed queer eroticism, a theme that the artiste said was quite important to her.
“As a lesbian Nigerian woman, I’ve never made love to a queer Nigerian song. And I’m 24-years-old, time is running out. I just wanted to be a nasty Nigerian lesbian and make such music, because heterosexual men do that always and get away with it. I want to be able to have sex with my girlfriend to mine or any queer Nigerian song,” she said.
She complained of homophobia among music regulators in Nigeria and said that she has affected the reception to her album in Nigeria but she felt comfortable knowing that she did not have to ‘water down her thoughts’ to gain acceptance and popularity on the Nigerian music scene.
“As much as I would love for my music to be played on radio, I didn’t pretend or deceive myself when the album dropped; moreso I’d been instructed to remove certain songs prior. Though there are a few individuals with good intention but there’s a corporation that regulates these things and they’re homophobic.
“For blogs and the likes, I hardly find people who interview or talk about me the way I want to be represented. This path I’m taking comes with a lot of financial sacrifice but I’m never going to put myself in a position where I have to water down my thoughts. I’ve done it before and it didn’t pay me,” Ovwasa said.
E Be Like Say Dem Swear For Me has been hailed as the first openly gay album in Nigeria and was released after the artiste exited YBNL record label last December.Â