(Opens in a new browser tab)<\/span><\/p>\nHer Instagram account has more than 1.5 million followers while her videos have been viewed around 10 million times on YouTube.<\/p>\n
Domestic appreciation is one thing \u2014 but Teni has loftier goals, saying \u201cwait till I fill up Wembley\u201d stadium in London.<\/p>\n
But she adds that real fame to her would be performing in South America.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to go to a Latin country and they will sing my songs. Then you can say I am popular.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod has given me a gift,\u201d she says without false modesty. \u201cHe\u2019s made me different for a reason. why would I rob the world of my greatness?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 High heels v football \u2013<\/p>\n
And different from afro-pop stars she certainly is.<\/p>\n
Her similarly successful sister Niniola more closely reflects conventional beauty ideals in Nigeria\u2013 often in trademark ultra high heels, fake eyelashes and long manicured nails.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s always been a diva, very pretty, even when we grew up\u2026 (whereas) I would play soccer, basketball,\u201d Teni says, speaking of her sibling with affection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest fight a human being can fight is to be yourself,\u201d she concludes \u2014 though that requires some guts in a country where \u201cwomen are second class citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
In \u2018Case,\u2019 a tale of street gang love, she tells the putative love interest: \u201cI slap police for your Case, I go to war for your Case, I go to court for your Case \u2026 I punch the judge for your Case \u2026 anything you want baby, get for you baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of pushing the envelope on cultural conventions, Teni doesn\u2019t hesitate to portray menfolk as serving women \u2014 even as far as sending them out to buy sanitary towels in humorous videos.<\/p>\n
Although that gives her an untypical image for a Nigerian woman she\u2019s not sure it makes her a feminist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a word for humanists?\u201d, she asks to cover her world view.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t want anyone to be treated badly \u2014 women, men, rich, poor\u2026 I don\u2019t want anyone to be treated any less because they are less privileged.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Just a regular girl\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Such talk is at odds with the kind of patter usually associated with the world of African music, where many singers prefer to show off private jets and bejewelled teeth than empathy with the less well-off.<\/p>\n
Yet her approach goes down better than might be expected.<\/p>\n
At this year\u2019s Gidi Fest, one of the biggest festivals of contemporary African music which Lagos hosts annually, an audience of thousands roared its approval when, wearing trainers, she bounded on to the giant stage.<\/p>\n
The cheers resounded again as she launched into some Shaku Shaku, a trendy street dance which has been dubbed Nigeria\u2019s answer to Gangnam style.<\/p>\n
Women profess to like her \u201cbecause she is herself\u201d while male fans say \u201cshe\u2019s entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTeni is one of the hottest artists right now,\u201d Gidi Fest co-founder Chin Okeke tells AFP. \u201cShe\u2019s really great, super talented, with a beautiful voice and wonderful stage presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw her in concert in Accra, in Ghana, and Port Harcourt,\u201d says Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, a journalist for Music in Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really incredible \u2014 all you associate with Nigerian singers, she\u2019s the opposite.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s not too pretty, she\u2019s not super rich. That\u2019s why people like her, She\u2019s just a regular girl like all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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