Ghanaian singer Gyakie has opened up about her experiences as a female artiste navigating an industry where men continue to dominate, saying she has been fortunate to feel safe within the team she works with.
The “Forever” singer said she has never encountered sexual conversations or harassment from members of her team, despite hearing accounts from other female artistes about similar experiences in the music industry.
Speaking on the Group Chat podcast, Gyakie explained that the environment created by the men she works with has allowed her to feel comfortable and protected in her professional space.
“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.
Her comments come as she reflects on the challenges she faced when she was trying to find her feet in the music industry.
According to Gyakie, the early stages of her career were financially demanding because she was largely responsible for promoting herself and getting her music before a wider audience.
She revealed that she sometimes accepted performance opportunities without payment, believing the exposure was more important at the time than the money.
“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.
One of the moments that left a lasting impression on her happened in 2019 during Republic Hall Week at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Gyakie had released her first song, which had accumulated about 10,000 digital streams at the time. She subsequently secured permission from the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) to perform at Republic Hall Week, an event that attracted a large campus audience.
But what should have been an important opportunity to introduce herself to a bigger audience quickly turned into an uncomfortable experience.
She said the reception from the crowd was hostile from the moment she took the stage, with sections of the audience chanting for her to leave.
“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.
The situation became even more difficult when the sound system reportedly stopped working while she was performing.
With the crowd continuing to react negatively and no other artiste on stage to share the moment with her, Gyakie said she eventually left the stage and headed backstage, where the experience became overwhelming.
“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 further stated.
Watch what she said below.
@officialutvghana “I feel safe working with my team because I haven’t experienced any sexual conversations with them.” — Gyakie #UTVGhana ♬ original sound – UTV Ghana
