Billboard African Rookie of the Month Gyakie Says Releasing Her Debut Album ‘After Midnight’ After Three Years ‘Felt Like a Dream Come True’

While Gyakie is affectionately known arsenic the “Songbird” for her saccharine melodies, she mightiness place much intimately with a nighttime owl. Ever since she started making euphony successful 2019 with her reggae-tinged debut azygous “Love Is Pretty,” Gyakie (real sanction Jackline Acheampong) discovered that euphony flowed freely retired of her successful the moonlight hours.

“Anytime I had workplace sessions successful the evenings, I got precise creative. I’m capable to get the cleanable lyrics. I’m capable to ideate the benignant of things I privation to accidental and I’m capable to bash it well,” she tells Billboard.

Whether she was signaling successful the U.K., Nigeria oregon Ghana, those intimate, candlelit workplace sessions created a serene situation for Gyakie to marque her debut album, aptly titled After Midnight. She details antithetic matters of the heart, similar expressing adoration connected the titular interlude but besides debating going backmost to an ex if her existent person doesn’t dainty her close connected the pb azygous “sankofa,” named aft the mythical backwards-facing vertebrate awesome from the Akan tribe. And she further expands the borders of her Afro-fusion dependable connected the album, from the accepted drums from her autochthonal Ashanti portion of Ghana connected the “intro” to the sweeping drawstring statement connected the invigorating gospel person “hallelujah.” “When you’re listening to it, you tin spot that it starts from the precise soulful songs and past it builds up gradually and past it goes backmost to the soulful songs. That is truly however my beingness and my full artistry is,” she explains.

From American R&B icons similar Nina Simone and Teddy Pendergrass to Ghanaian highlife legends similar her ain father, Nana Acheampong, and Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, she was surrounded by euphony that spoke to one’s soul. Little Gyakie and her younger member Justin posed with workplace headphones alongside their begetter successful a booth for the screen of her 2020 debut EP Seed, wherever her breakout deed “Forever” was planted: After earning a remix with Omah Lay successful 2021, “Forever” reached No. 3 connected Billboard’s Top Triller Global illustration and Shazam’s Top 200 chart. That year, Gyakie was named the emerging pistillate of the twelvemonth astatine the 3Music Awards, the yearly Ghanaian euphony awards ceremonial that aboriginal honored her arsenic the pistillate of the twelvemonth successful 2022, and signed a grounds woody with RCA Records UK. While the Songbird rapidly took flight, Gyakie has kept soaring since.

In the 5 months surrounding the merchandise of her debut album, Gyakie was featured connected Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list, was named the Spotify EQUAL Africa Ambassador successful September and Billboard’s African Rookie of the Month successful October. “I presumption my beingness arsenic a large country that has truthful galore doors. Everything happening close present is similar a caller doorway being opened for me,” she says.

Billboard spoke with Gyakie astir juggling her planetary concern grade with her budding philharmonic career, spending 3 years signaling After Midnight and sampling her father’s classical and featuring her favourite rapper connected 1 of its tracks.  

How overmuch did your father’s vocation way successful the euphony manufacture interaction you to carve retired your own?

When I dropped my archetypal EP – the artwork had a representation of maine and my dada successful the workplace – everybody was questioning, “This full clip that’s your dad?!” Whenever I went for interviews, I explained however successful the opening of my career, I ne'er mentioned him due to the fact that I wanted to bash this by myself. After radical recovered retired aboriginal on, the...