Ghanaian Afrobeat sensation Jackline Acheampong, popularly known as Gyakie, has revealed the emotional toll her rise to fame took on her, particularly after the global success of her hit song Forever.
In an emotional interview with BBC Africa, the artist candidly shared the pressures she faced in the early days of her career.
Reflecting on the overwhelming weight of fame, Gyakie confessed, “In the beginning of my career, almost every three days, I would be crying at home because the pressure was getting too much, especially when ‘Forever’ blew up.” She admitted that the expectations to consistently produce hit songs became both a motivating and daunting challenge. “The expectations to make hit songs are good when it feels motivational but different when it feels like pressure to deliver something,” she explained.
The constant demand for success, coupled with social media criticism, proved to be emotionally challenging for the artist. “It took me a while to not let negative comments affect me when people said bad things about me online,” Gyakie shared, emphasizing how difficult it was to handle the early criticism.
However, she noted her emotional growth over time, explaining that she has now learned to remain unaffected by unwarranted negativity. “It’s good when [criticism] feels like motivation but different when it now feels like you are giving me pressure to do something,” she said.
Gyakie concluded by expressing how she now responds to false criticism with indifference. “But now, I could see anything about me, where the person knows what he is saying is not true; I would be like, somebody should give me some water to drink because the country is already hard,” she quipped, showing how she has learned to navigate the challenges of fame with a sense of resilience.
