Spotify premieres Tems’ Lagos concert film as debut EP hits 888m streams

By Damilola Akinwale –

Spotify has premiered Tems: Surround Sound, a full-length concert film featuring Nigerian singer Tems, as her debut Extended Play (EP), For Broken Ears, surpasses 888 million streams on the platform.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the streaming platform announced the film’s release, which was directed by Tim Horwood and set in Lagos. The film follows the singer’s musical journey through an intimate performance featuring songs from different stages of her career, including tracks from her early years and more recent releases.

The setlist includes “Try Me”, “Looku Looku”, “Crazy Tings”, “Replay”, “Love Me JeJe” and “Me & U”, alongside tracks from For Broken Ears, such as “Damages”, “The Key”, “Higher” and “Free Mind”.

Six years after its release in September 2020, For Broken Ears, which introduced Tems to a wider international audience, has amassed more than 888 million streams across 185 countries, according to Spotify’s September 2026 data. The seven-track project includes “Free Mind”, one of the singer’s most successful songs.

The company also said songs from the project had introduced nearly 19 million listeners to Tems on Spotify since 2023. Spotify’s data further indicates that 21.6 per cent of listeners who streamed the EP in January 2022 returned to the project in August 2026.

Rifumo Mdaka, Spotify’s Content Marketing Manager for Africa, said Tems’ early music remained an entry point for new listeners and a collection that older fans continued to revisit. “Surround Sound gives that relationship a physical setting, with Tems surrounded by fans in Lagos,” Mdaka said. She added that the film allows audiences outside the venue to experience the songs as part of the singer’s broader musical journey.

Horwood said the production was designed to preserve the intimacy of the singer’s delivery while giving each song room in the set. “With Tems, the voice and the space around it are central to the experience. Closing the performance with ‘Free Mind’ helped connect the different periods the film represents,” he said.

Tems: Surround Sound, which became available on the streaming platform on Wednesday, is part of Spotify’s live-performance format originating in sub-Saharan Africa. It brings artistes and selected Spotify Premium subscribers together for intimate performances recorded as full-length concert films.