Tems wrote “What You Need” in the middle of a breakup about seven years ago, and when it finally came out, it was one of seven songs on an EP she released last November without warning. Thirty weeks into its run on the Billboard Hot 100, it has just climbed back from No. 33 to No. 29, level with the highest it has ever been.
In the five years since Wizkid’s “Essence” took Afrobeats into the Hot 100’s top 10, no song carried by an African artist on their own had lasted longer than 29 weeks there. Tyla’s “Water” reached that mark across 2023 and 2024, peaking at No. 7, and CKay’s “Love Nwantiti” had done the same two years before her.
This one has taken the long way. “What You Need” entered the chart at No. 93 in mid-February, a few weeks before RCA and Since ’93 put it out again as a standalone single, and its 30 weeks are spread across 37 chart weeks, so it has fallen off and found its way back at least once. It got to No. 29 in August, then drifted into the 30s through September. Radio is the likeliest reason it is rising again. The same chart week that has it back at No. 29 also has it at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rhythmic Airplay chart, her first No. 1 there as a lead artist, months after R&B stations took it to the top of their own chart in July.
Tems has been part of long American runs before, mostly as somebody else’s guest. Future’s “Wait for U,” built on her voice and featuring Drake, stayed 41 weeks and went to No. 1. Wizkid’s “Essence,” with her verse and later Justin Bieber’s, ran 35. “Raindance,” her duet with Dave, managed 30 this year. The longest of them all, Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down,” lasted 57. Under her own name, her best before this was “Free Mind,” with 21 weeks in 2022.
Her second album, she told EE72 this month, leans “more melancholic,” which puts it nearer to “What You Need” than to anything else on that EP.