Who Is Tenor?! Get to know about Cameroonian Artiste Tenor (Biography)

Born April 11, 1998 in Yaoundé1,  Thierry Mengoumou Ayia who is Popularly Known as Tenor is a Cameroonian rapper and songwriter who began his musical career in 2014, and became known on the national and international scene in 2016 thanks to the success of his single ” Do le Dab“.

He is designated by Ivorians as the new Dj Arafat and. Tenor was signed by War Machine Records by Dex Willy and later on signed under the international label Universal Music Africa from November 2017 until May 2020 when he joined Def Jam Afrique Francophone.

Education-wise, Tenor in 2015 obtained his probatoire in commercial actions and communication at the Technical High School of Edéa. Due to the success in his musical career, he decided to take a break from his studies in 2016, when he was in Final year without having been able to obtain his baccalaureate. He always defends this act of his as he said it was a sacrifice he knew he had to take for his success.

The Tenor‘s musical career began in 2014 when he was 16 years old. This year, he released his first title, a freestyle called “Camerounais”. His first single Alelouyah was released in 2015; but it is the song Do le Dab released in 2016 that will make him known to the general public. In 2016, Tenor joined the War Machine label with which he released the title Do le Dab which achieved great success.

This song allowed him to be nominated for the 2016 edition of Canal 2’Or in the revelation of the year and popular song categories although the rapper didn’t win the award, but marked this edition thanks to the first lady of Cameroon Chantal Biya, who danced to his song and performed a dab. This made his name spread wider across the nation as the video of Chantal Biya dabbing went viral . He used the buzz at that time to later on release Nathalie which is a response to the release of the book by Nathalie Koah, ex-girlfriend Cameroonian footballer Samuel Eto’o.

In May 2017, after a year of collaboration, he left the War Machine  and worked for a year as an independent artist, until November 2017, when he joined the Universal Music Africa label. He signed with the international label for 2 albums and thus became the first Cameroonian and Central African artist to join the African branch of the record company Universal Music.

He  joined other big names in African music such as Ivory Coast Group Kiff No Beat and DJ Arafat. Fast forward 3 years later, After constant releases, Tenor signed with Def Jam Afrique Francophone and Joined Ivorian Rapper Suspect 95  in the label.

he released his first EP, a 7-track project titled Nnom Ngui in 2019 and since then hasn’t released any other body of work .Tenor has obtained numerous awards and sold out numerous Shows locally and internationally.