Gertrude Oduro Annan of the famous gospel group Getty and Friends, who is now based in New York, has opened up about her 22-year stay in New York, in the United States of America.
Getty, who used to be the main face of the group, made this disclosure in an interview with Zion Felix, monitored by GhanaWeb.
The 'Menim' hitmaker who is currently in Ghana for a church tour dubbed 'Hava Extravagance' and also to rekindle with her family, said she relocated to the US after she was invited to minister at a programme.
Even though she was quite famous in Ghana back then, she told the host that it didn't come with lots of money.
"I have been in New York for 22 years. I went there to minister because I was invited. But a few things happened, and I decided to stay over. During the course, I got married and started having kids. I was also engaged in church a lot...Back then it was purely ministry; there were not enough returns from that," she said in Twi.
Sharing her experience about her stay in New York, she emphasized that it was not easy, to begin with.
Getty explained that she didn't allow the fame she had in Ghana to affect her; she did all sorts of jobs to survive because she was only looking at the future.
"22 years in America has been tough, educative, strong and I think it has been good...I have all my kids there, they are schooling there which is a great advantage. I have had to go through surgeries, and I tell myself I don't know how I would have survived if I was here (Ghana).
"I had a mindset to start afresh in New York, so difficulties didn't stop me. I didn't mind doing any job to survive," she narrated.
She reiterated that the journey to motherhood has not also been smooth, as she lost 2 babies to miscarriage.
"I had tough pregnancies; in all I had 2 miscarriages, CS and some other complications," she said.
She is now in full-time ministry in New York and also does another job to support that.
The veteran artiste gave a background on how the group came about:
"Getty and Friends comprised of the back vocalists and the instrumentalists. We used 'and Friends' so that everyone would feel a part of the group. The second reason was that I was schooling at Korle Bu Nursing Training...I was in my early 20s during that time," she explained.
