Ghanaian singer Gyakie deliberately chose to establish herself in the music industry without the shadow of her famous father, highlife legend Nana Acheampong, hanging over her career.
The singer said she kept her father’s identity out of the public conversation when she started making music in 2019 because she wanted her success to be judged on her own talent and hard work.
Speaking on The Group Chat, hosted by Nana Aba Anamoah, Gyakie said she understood that being introduced as Nana Acheampong’s daughter could have shaped how people viewed her achievements.
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“The thing about me is that when I started, I took my dad’s name and everything about him out of the picture. So, in 2019 and 2020, if you didn’t know me personally, you wouldn’t know my dad is Nana Acheampong until I dropped my first EP,” she said.
Her decision remained largely unnoticed until she released her debut EP, which featured a striking image of her and Nana Acheampong together in a recording studio.
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The artwork became the moment fans began making the connection between the emerging singer and the highlife icon.
“That project had Forever on it, and the artwork was me and him in a studio. People were like, ‘Wait, is that not him in the picture?’ That’s where the conversation started,” she recounted.
Gyakie said she was fully aware of the potential pressure that could come with starting her career under the identity of a well-known musician’s daughter. Rather than allow those expectations to define her, she chose to build her career first and reveal the connection later.
“I knew how it would have been if I started my journey with my dad’s name. It was going to be very tricky for me, so I wanted to really play my cards well. I wanted to do it myself and see how far it would go. I wanted to see how it would be if I was personally doing it,” she stated.
Recounting her journey, Gyakie considers the decision a major step in establishing her identity as an artiste.
She explained that one of her biggest concerns was having her accomplishments constantly attributed to her father, regardless of how much work she had put into achieving them.
“One thing I didn’t want people to start doing is saying I worked hard for something and they’d be like, ‘It’s because of her dad. She got this award because… She went on this stage because…’ I want you to understand that it was also my hard work that took me there,” Gyakie explained.
Watch her statement below.
@chalenewsgh GYAKIE On Building Her Own Identity #news #fyp #viral #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #ghanatiktok🇬🇭 ♬ original sound – ChaleNewsGh🇬🇭
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