When an artist steps away from the spotlight due to significant life changes that aren’t publicly revealed, assumptions naturally fill the void. For singer-songwriter Temi Oni, the chief assumption following her absence was that motherhood meant leaving music behind. However, her time away was not a retreat, but rather an intensive period of rediscovery.
Rather than allowing societal expectations of pregnant artists and new mothers to dictate her pause or return, Temi used the time to reconnect with herself and find a new, more centred voice. Her latest work, including the EP Me Time, reflects her refusal to shrink or be confined by these expectations.
Temi explains: “I don’t think there was ever a moment when I said, ‘I’m stepping away from music.’ People assume that because I wasn’t releasing music, I wasn’t making any. But music has always been the undercurrent of my life – constant and always running in the background.”
Even during the pandemic, when she was pregnant twice and the world seemed to come to a halt, Temi was still writing and recording from home. The real question wasn’t whether she was still an artist, but what she had to say now that life had changed so profoundly.
Motherhood reshaped Temi’s approach to music. She wanted to create songs that were both mindful and accessible to a wider audience. “Before becoming a mother, my music was introspective and soulful,” she says. “But now, motherhood has given me a new lens through which to tell stories, especially about the complexities of womanhood, marriage, responsibility, and shifting identities.”
With her new EP Me Time, Temi hopes to offer a voice to women navigating similar experiences. She felt that there was a gap in the music world, especially for women in their thirties talking about motherhood and the challenges of balancing different aspects of their lives.
Her journey into motherhood, Temi shares, has altered her relationship with time. “There’s a lot of invisible labour in motherhood, and even with the support of an amazing village, there are moments when I’m overwhelmed in ways people don’t see,” she explains. The hardest part wasn’t the physical work but the societal expectations placed upon her. “When I had my children, it felt like everyone around me silently assumed my life should pause,” she recalls.
But Temi’s experience as a mother has also led her to advocate for herself more than ever before. She insists on the importance of professional support that doesn’t treat motherhood as a handicap and personal support that offers her genuine time for herself. “My life works because I make choices with clarity, not guilt,” she says.
Motherhood, for Temi, has not been a limit, but a transformation. “I’m still here, still writing, still becoming. This version of me – the mother, the artist, and the woman – is the most centred I have ever been.”