Paramount Pictures has released a new trailer for Children of Blood and Bone, and the sound running through it belongs to Tems. The Grammy-winning Nigerian star is the executive music producer of the film, and her song “African Love Song” is the voice carrying the trailer’s mix of rebellion, grief and hope.
The footage shows a world split between those who hold power and those whose magic was taken from them. The song gives that conflict a human pulse. Where the first trailer leaned on spectacle, this one lets Tems set the emotional temperature, and it works.
The song is no accident. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood has said she builds playlists while writing, and two records stayed on repeat as she worked on this film: Tems’ “Try Me” and Burna Boy’s “Alone.” When it came time to shape the soundtrack, her instruction was simple. She wanted Tems to curate it and to executive produce it. She announced the role at the film’s trailer launch in Brooklyn, describing Tems as the first woman to executive produce a soundtrack at this scale.
Tems is not the only Nigerian name behind the music. Burna Boy is executive music consultant, and the soundtrack lineup includes Fireboy DML, BNXN and Ayra Starr, who also makes her acting debut in the film. Tems herself contributes three original songs. Terence Blanchard is composing the score, so the project pairs a contemporary Afrobeats and R&B sensibility with a orchestral backbone.
For Tems, this is a natural next step in a run that has made her Hollywood’s favorite sound from the continent. Her cover of “No Woman No Cry” opened the first Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer, she co-wrote the Oscar-nominated “Lift Me Up,” and “Me & U” already appeared in the film’s earlier teaser. Now she is no longer only supplying songs to a story. She is shaping its musical identity from the top.
“African Love Song” is set to arrive on streaming platforms on November 20 through RCA Records.
Directed by Prince-Bythewood, Children of Blood and Bone adapts Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling novel and stars Thuso Mbedu, Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg and Tosin Cole. The cast also features Cynthia Erivo, Lashana Lynch, Zackary Momoh, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Regina King, Idris Elba, Viola Davis, Saniyya Sidney, Diaana Babnicova, Bukky Bakray, Ayra Starr, Kola Bodunde, Pamilerin Afolake Ayodeji and Tèmítópé Fágbénlé.
Children of Blood and Bone opens only in theatres and IMAX on January 15, 2027.