Singer Encountered Disappointment and Body Shaming for Singing in Sissala Language.
Award-winning singer and songwriter, Wiyaala, has shared some challenges she experienced during her early career journey singing in her native Sissala language. In an interview on 3FM Lounge, Wiyaala said she was disappointed by Ghanaians who initially didn’t accept her style of music.
She recounted being body-shamed and facing a lack of appreciation for her music style when she began her career. According to the ‘Rock My Body crooner’, she was only encouraged and motivated to continue by the diasporan community which appreciated her music style.
“The disappointing part was immediately I stepped out only Ghanaians living abroad, diaspora accepted me. They just accepted me quick but the authentic Ghanaian were not even minding me. They were like that girl is she not a footballer? They were talking about how I’m going to beat somebody, my body is too hard, my back is too flat and my body is too hard.
“The flip side is that, that made me popular so I capitalized on that. There were certain things that I just knew that it was going to take years to try and convince anybody to accept me so I just channeled my energy to the community of people in Ghana and outside that appreciated me,” she told AJ Sarpong on Friday, March 22.
Wiyaala added that she heeded her instincts which informed her to “concentrate on abroad where the music is selling” with expectations that people will come around later.
She explained further that she was advised by her management to feature a few Ghanaian artistes whose style of music had been accepted to fit in the industry. However, despite her efforts, she found adapting to a different style to be financially draining and could not go ahead.
“I tried but I was not doing that because I wanted to but the people around me wanted to feature some few artistes in Ghana so they will introduce you. I tried one or two but then it was still not catching up, I was rather spending unnecessary money just to fit in…adapting meant I had to force and convince not just emotionally, psychologically and physically but financially and I could not,” she stressed.
The ‘Sissala Goddess’ has since won many awards, including international ones, and etched several achievements with the same style of music.