Jackline Acheampong, better known as Gyakie, is a remarkably composed young woman.
The 20-year-old has only been making music since 2019 and is still in university. Yet when we talk about her meteoric rise to stardom, she is calm and confident.
Maybe it is not so surprising when you reflect that her father is Nana Acheampong, a member of Ghana’s highlife royalty.
Gyakie’s confidence and maturity, as well as her obvious talent, is evident even in her first song, Love is Sweet.
It’s hard to stand out in Africa’s crowded musical landscape, but somehow Gyakie’s attractive, slightly husky, vocals cut through.
“After Love is Sweet was released, the feedback I got from people was like, nah, this is what you actually have to do,” she tells me.
A couple of songs later and Gyakie released Forever. It has become massive.
The video got to more than five million views in less than a month, and Nigerian man of the moment Omah Ley was poised and ready to feature on the remix.
“He tweeted after the release that he had written his verse already. Probably he was expecting to be asked for the feature.”
Ley isn’t the only one to have recognised Gyakie’s talent.
Nigerian Afrobeats star Wizkid made a special trip to watch her perform.
She has already been snapped up by Sony, and Spotify have invited her to be a part of their Spotify Equals project, aimed at bringing gender equity to the music industry.
She is the first African woman to have been signed up, and one of the perks of the deal is that her image has been up in lights in New York’s famous Time Square.
