Teniola Apata, popularly known as Teni, has revealed that one of her best-loved songs began with tears on the day she finally graduated from university. Speaking on the Queens Mic Pod, the Nigerian singer recalled driving herself to her graduation ceremony after seven years of study, overwhelmed by the experience and the years it had taken to reach that point. She began freestyling in the car, drawing on the frustration, relief and joy of a milestone that had felt painfully out of reach. That moment became the starting point for Uyo Meyo.
The story behind the song carries a detail that gives its message added weight: while Teni waited for her own graduation, she continued attending other people’s ceremonies. Her younger sister had graduated before her, and questions about when she would finish became a recurring part of her experience. Each time the expected year passed, she found herself explaining that she would graduate the following year. By the time her own day arrived, the emotions of those repeated delays had accumulated.
In the interview, Teni said the freestyle gained attention before the official recording was released. Listeners who encountered it wanted a full version, recognising something in its unpolished emotion that connected with their own experiences. The song eventually became one of the defining records of her career. Its beginnings were not the product of a carefully planned studio session, but of a personal moment that found its musical form while she was on her way to celebrate an achievement.
The title Uyo Meyo draws on the Ondo dialect and the song’s central idea: when you celebrate another person’s success sincerely, your own moment of celebration will come. Teni has previously explained that the song grew from her gratitude at finally completing her degree and from her happiness for her younger sister, despite the difference in their timelines. The message is rooted in a familiar tension: wanting your own life to move forward while watching people around you reach milestones first.
That tension gives the song a reach beyond graduation. Across families, workplaces and creative industries, people often measure their progress against the visible achievements of friends, siblings and colleagues. A delayed degree, a stalled career or a long wait for recognition can make other people’s good news difficult to hear. Teni’s account offers a different response. Her story does not suggest that waiting is easy; it shows that another person’s success need not diminish the possibility of your own.
Released in December 2018, Uyo Meyo became a signature song for Teni, combining an uplifting sound with a message of gratitude and perseverance. Its popularity also helped establish the value of music that draws directly from an artist’s personal experience and cultural background. The song’s Ondo-language expression is central to its identity, giving its message a particular voice rather than packaging it in language designed to appeal to everyone. Its wider audience has grown around that specificity.
Teni’s latest recollection also highlights an important part of the creative process: artists do not always know which moments will become the work people remember. A drive to a graduation ceremony, a private emotional release or an improvised melody can become a song that listeners carry into their own lives. In this case, the rawness of the original freestyle was part of its appeal, prompting audiences to ask for a finished record before it had become the familiar hit they know today.
Years after its release, Uyo Meyo continues to speak to people whose timelines have not followed the schedules they expected. Teni’s revelation brings the story back to its source: a young woman on her way to graduate, carrying seven years of effort and the emotions that came with finally reaching the finish line. She was crying before the celebration began. Then she sang. What followed was a song that gave other people a way to hold on to their own turn.
