Gyakie: I have worked hard and deserve Sony Entertainment deal

Sensational musician Jackie Acheampong, better known on stage as Gyakie, says hard work led to her fast rise in the music industry.

Giving details on how she entered the music scene on Asaase Radio’s Rush Hour with Elvis Crystal, the musician disclosed that, besides writing her own songs, what keeps her going is having the full backing of her father and manager.

And because she has paid her dues, she says, she deserves her golden contract with the American music company Sony Entertainment/RCA.

“We’ve worked really hard, anybody that has been following my music since ‘Love Is Pretty’ till now would know the amount of hard work we have put into this.

“We really deserve it. He deserves it, I deserve it and the entire nation deserves it.”

Sony deal

The Afropop musician has signed to the American global music company Sony Music Entertainment/RCA Records.

This deal is allowing Gyakie’s songs to be marketed on international platforms and for Sony Music to push her songs on to several markets. But how did she win this great contract?

Her manager, Electro Mirror, explained: “Prior to getting on with RCA and Sony, it shows in our consistency, how we don’t back down, we just keep going on.”

“So I think, based on that energy, that zeal and enthusiasm, we were able to have the majors reaching out to have a deal and move on.

“And in this case, we have much more of the bargaining power. It went in very well and Gyakie has a lot of power. With our outfit, we have the sole power in terms of creativity, in terms of what we put out. It is more of an amplification to get into newer markets,” he said.

Twitter brouhaha

Over the past week, Gyakie was in the news for many reasons, but particularly a Twitter post about her remix which triggered a debate about her and her work.

“It’s not for everyone,” she tweeted. “Those who connect to it are the ones I made this for.”

The tweet generated an uproar on her page. But how did the young singer take the harsh reactions from social media? Gyakie shared her experience with Crystal on Rush Hour.

“I took it really calm,” she said. “It didn’t really get me because they were people’s opinions and everybody is entitled to their opinions and I respect everyone’s opinions. I saw it to be the normal thing.”

The “Forever” hitmaker returned to her Twitter page to apologise to fans for her last tweet. However, some of her fans thought her apology was unnecessary.

But Gyakie said, “Because a lot of people read different meanings into it, a majority of them. So I had to lend an apology to people that took it the wrong way, because they took the wrong way and they ended up being hurt.”

“It was only right for me to apologise.”

With the remix rendition of her song “Forever”, featuring the Nigerian musician Omah Lay, she  released the video clip for the track on Thursday 25 March 2021.

Learned lots of things from Dad

It is no surprise that Gyakie has such an enviable talent: her father is one of Ghana’s highlife legends, Nana Acheampong. Gyakie revealed the habits she adopted, growing up with her father.

“The thing with music – and I mean, growing up with my dad, I’ve learned so many things. He is the reason why I fell in love with music. If you see the photo on the ‘SEED’ EP, that is little me and my father in the studio.

“I recorded a song, actually, at that age. I was about six and the song … was called ‘Lollipop’. These are some of the things I learned, growing up with my dad.”

Andrew Sepah

Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
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