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Cover Star Interview
Ghanaian R&B and Afro-Fusion singer Gyakie joins Nandi Madida via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about her latest single “damn you” featuring 6LACK. She also discusses her debut album ‘After Midnight’, her early musical beginnings, her love for fashion and style, and achieving a musical legacy.
This Week’s Hottest New Tracks
Nandi Madida shares the hottest new African tracks of the moment. This week’s selection includes new tracks from SPINALL & Summer Walker feat. Buju Banton & Jaz Karis, Tiwa Savage, Soa Mattrix & Kabza De Small feat. Starr Healer & Frigid Armadillo, MaWhoo, Mthunzi & Deep Sen, and Bella Alubo.
Tune in and listen to the full episode this Friday, August 29th at 9a Lagos/London / 10a Johannesburg/Paris / 1a LA / 4a NYC on Apple Music 1 at apple.co/_AfricaNow and broadcast on on YFM Accra every Sunday at 2pm, YFM Kumasi on Saturdays at 3pm and YFM Takoradi on Saturdays at 6pm.
Gyakie tells Apple Music why she names her album ‘After Midnight’.
Most of the songs on the album were recorded within those hours. I love having studio sessions and creating at dawn, because the world becomes so quiet, there’s no noise, nobody’s calling you, nobody is really trying to have conversations. I’m able to focus, think and create! Even when it comes to stage performances, being the life of the parties, it’s really within those hours as well. So I think the majority of my schedules in life, especially when I started growing up, has really been after midnight. If there’s an emergency in the world right now, Gyakie will be there to save the day because I will be the only person that’s up!
Gyakie tells Apple Music what she hopes to achieve with her album ‘After Midnight’.
I’m coming for the soul. I’m coming for people’s emotions. When I say I’m coming for that, I want somebody to be healed. I want somebody to be happy. I want somebody to be motivated. I want somebody to get a confidence booster. I want somebody to fall in love because they heard a line in the song. I want somebody to become healed from a heartbreak. There’s also a gospel song on there that will give you goosebumps. So all these things I’m mentioning are connected to people’s emotions and people’s souls, and that is really my main goal for this project. I want to be seeing messages of people telling me, “I listened to this song and you can’t believe it got me through a heartbreak. I listened to this song and we used it for my wedding. I listened to the song and I got so happy when I didn’t have confidence.” I want to really have that emotional impact.
Gyakie tells Apple Music about her early musical beginnings.
Music really wasn’t something I thought I was going to do from the beginning. I was a student on campus studying international business, but I didn’t know God had his own plans for me. In my second year, I bumped into a producer that I still work with now. It was through a friends and in a random conversation, he mentioned that he had a studio and that he would love to send me some beats because I was in love with music as a person. I went to his hostel after my class the next day and recorded a song. The song ended up coming out and to my surprise, the people were loving it! Music just met me while I was on campus and it’s been an amazing journey ever since.
 Gyakie tells Apple Music about her love for fashion and style.
I like seeing people look good. So, every time that I realize how excited I get when I see people looking good, I think I might as well also throw something on myself!
I’m always very particular about how I look when I step out. But the funny thing is I don’t really think too much. It’s always amazing to me that people love me for being myself. I will wake up and throw on an outfit that I’ll wear on my normal daily life, but it seems that people really love the way I put it together. I think I’m also one person that very much loves vintage clothing, vintage hair, vintage looks, because we’re living in crazy times now. I want to go back. I want to go back to those good days!
Gyakie tells Apple Music about her very first E.P ‘Seed’ (2020).
Seed was my first body of work, my first E.P and I wanted people to really understand the kind of sounds I’m capable of doing. So I wanted to use that project to make people see how versatile I could be. So with this five track E.P, if you listen to the songs on there, there’s R&B, there’s Hip-Hop, there’s Afrobeats, and then there’s Soul – all of the genres that I listened to growing up. The cover Art of the E.P was a picture of me in the studio with my dad prior to the E.P dropping. I had never mentioned that my dad was Nana Acheampong, so when the artwork came out for that E.P, everybody was like oh right! So the E.P was really a proper introduction to the audience and for them to actually know me, my sound and my artistry.
 Gyakie tells Apple Music about achieving a musical legacy.
I get very proud of seeing the kind of legacy my dad has planted in the industry and in life in general. It makes me want to be able to do something similar. Maybe I may not be able to do it to the same length, but I want people to still talk about my music and talk about its impact, even when I’m not here, or after so many centuries that have gone by. I don’t want my name to be missing when it’s all said and done. That is why I’m always very particular about the kind of music I make because I want to make timeless music. I want to make music for generations that will come after and still connect to it.
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