The Ghanaian music industry, which is largely male-dominated, has seen singer Gyakie establish herself as one of the notable female artistes in the country.
The “Forever” hitmaker has stated that she feels safe working with her team because she has never experienced any sexual conversations or harassment from them.
Speaking on the Group Chat podcast, Gyakie said although she has heard female colleagues make statements about experiencing sexual conversations or harassment from some males in the industry or within their teams, she considers herself fortunate not to have experienced the same with her team yet.
“Luckily for me, my team members whom I work with always make me feel safe. I have had colleagues who made statements about sexual conversations and harassment but fortunately for me, I haven’t experienced that yet in my team. I feel very safe having a group of guys working with me,” she said.
Looking back on her early days in the industry, Gyakie said it was very tough financially because she was trying to push herself and establish her presence in the public space.
She said she performed at some shows for free whenever necessary because she wanted to put herself out there and gain exposure.
“In the beginning, because I was pushing to do it myself, it was very tough financially. I was also trying to put myself out there, so for any show that I had to go to, I would go for free if I had to. I didn’t take any money because I really wanted to put myself out there,” she noted.
Gyakie also recalled a difficult experience during her first performance at Republic Hall at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 2019.
She had dropped her first song, which had about 10,000 digital streams at the time, and secured an opportunity to perform during Republic Hall Week, one of the biggest events on the KNUST campus.
However, when she mounted the stage to perform, she said the crowd began booing her and chanting for her to leave the stage.
“I remember my first performance at Republic Hall. I went on stage, and everybody was telling me to leave the stage. It was in 2019, during Republic Hall Week. I had dropped my first track, and it was one of the biggest events on the KNUST campus. I was able to get the SRC to allow me to perform.
“I went on stage to perform my song, which had about 10,000 streams at the time. I grabbed the mic and started performing, and everyone in the crowd was chanting ‘Away’,” she recalled.
Gyakie further shared that as the boos grew louder while she was alone on stage, the speakers suddenly stopped working, leaving her in a difficult situation.
She eventually made her way backstage, where she broke down and cried.
“While I was performing, at one point, the speakers stopped working, and I was the only person on stage, so tiny, so small. I actually cried when I went backstage. From that time, I started getting anxiety anytime I had to go on stage,” she added.
