“Nigeria Have A Better Understanding Of My Sound Than Ghana” – Amaarae
Amaarae, a Ghanaian alternative music singer, has stated why her music, when it first gained attention, stemmed from Nigeria, despite her attempts “to get into the alternative space, (in Ghana) trying to move the needle,” failing.
In a recent interview with Giovanni and AJ on 3FM, she said:
“How I’ve moved into the alternative scene, I tried in Ghana for about a year, just trying to get into the alternative space, trying to move the needle, and it didn’t really work. So I actually, I told my mom, I was like, look, I think we need to make some time, go to Nigeria, build our relationships there.
“There’s a video coming up that I had to shoot at the time it was Santi’s Rapid Fire; instead of just going to Nigeria and just shooting rapid fire and coming back, let’s do a whole press run there, TV, radio, whatever, so let’s find some money and let’s put it in that, and let’s do a show as well.
“So I connected Douglas Jerkins and my mom and they, both of them together just kind of came up with an itinerary for about two and a half weeks of me in Nigeria just doing constant press everything. So I went and shot rapid fire right after that, I was straight on radio and TV every day for two weeks.“
The singer stated that she spent around a year between Nigeria and London doing public relations and cultivating ties prior to signing a distribution contract with Platoon in London. She also mentioned how Ghana is not receptive to the blending of diverse sounds in addition to its indigenous sound.
“We have great artistes and great talent, but I think here we really love like the homegrown sound, and we haven’t gotten to that point yet where we’re completely open to like a more like, um, fusion sound”
“Ghanaian audience likes a certain type of sound from Ghana artistes, whereas they may be more receptive to fusion sounds from like Nigerian artistes, south African and so on. So I think for me that was just the reasoning why from an analytical standpoint, it just made sense to approach things from Nigeria.”
Ama Serwah Genfi, professionally known as Amaarae, is a Ghanaian singer renowned for her efforts in gender and racial representation in music. In 2017, she release her debut EP, Passionfruit Summers, after collaborating with local musicians and releasing a few non-album songs.
On her debut album “The Angel You Don’t Know”, Amaarae released “Sad Girlz Like Money” featuring Moliy in 2020. In 2021, the song was remixed with a feature from Kali Uchis, and it gained popularity on social media, streaming platforms, and worldwide charts.
She was featured on the track “A Body, a Coffin” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Soundtrack. The song was recorded in Nigeria in 2022 within forty-eight hours of flying from Los Angeles to Nigeria.
“So for Black Panther specifically, , a good friend of mine, his name is, Sheni, he happened to just be A and Rin’ the record. So I was working on my album and he’s like, where are you in the world right now? I was like, Sheni, I’m in LA I’m finishing my album.
“He was like, you have to come to Nigeria now. I was like, how do you mean? He’s like, I need to be here in 24 hours because we are doing the Black Panther soundtrack and you need to have a track on it. So I literally, and she talks to my mom all the time too, so I was literally like, okay, Sheni, you text my mom.”
“So I closed my camp four days early, so I stopped working on my album four days early. I took my two producers and we literally flew to Nigeria the next day.
“They wanted me to record a song but I was like, look, let me just give you like an original song. And I was like, let me bring my producers, blah, blah, blah. They were like, okay, you just bring them and come. And literally we went 24 hours. I took my whole team and we knocked out a song for them and turned around.”
