I quit nursing in UK to do music in Ghana – Sista Afia

Twenty-four-year-old songstress Sista Afia has said she abandoned her nursing career in the United Kingdom (UK) and came to Ghana to pursue a music career.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with NEWS-ONE on Thursday, she said music is her passion and that she will go to any length to fulfill it.

“I grew up in Accra and Kumasi. I went to Reverend John Teye Memorial Institute and also Angel Educational Complex before relocating to the UK. They dragged me to the UK by force. I was 15 then and I did my high school and university in the UK. I read Nursing but I came to Ghana because of music. That is how serious I am about my music career,” she said.

“The first thing I have in mind is to link up with my country. When I was a kid, I wanted to sing in Ghana. I wanted to be someone who can inspire other people. I just wanted to be in Ghana. Hopefully when things go well, I can go back,” she added.

“I am just a regular girl who likes to sing and do something with my music career. I love music. That’s all I can say,” she also said.

Born Franchesca Duncan Williams, Afia started singing at church programmes and wedding ceremonies while in London. That caught the attention of her manager who later introduced her to Bisa Kdei who has since been helping her.

“I met Bisa Kdei through my manager and he is a lovely guy. We are just friends. We are cool and we care for each other. Nothing really; we are just working together basically. I have nothing amorously going on with him. We just care for each other; we care as far as caring could reach. He helps me out musically. He produced my songs and did the beats,” she said, dispelling rumours that she is dating Kdei.

Currently, Afia has two highlife singles titled Krokro No and Are You Ready, which was released on February 1. She hopes to drop an album sometime soon.

However, she craves for women empowerment in Ghana’s music industry as she says she is shocked that no Ghanaian female artiste has ever won artiste of the year award at the annual Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.

She described it as “unfair” and said it was about time the ladies in the industry came together and worked extra hard.

“Ghana music, the girls’ category is missing a lot (sic). Even though it is there, it is not there. I think we need to come up and fight and talk more good stuff in our music. We need to run ourselves properly; that’s what I can say when it comes to the girls’ category because the men have overtaken us and it is not fair. We need to come together, work together and push ourselves up.

“I don’t understand why no female artiste has ever won artiste of the year. There were years when top notch female musicians like Akosua Agyapong were getting awards for what they did. I don’t understand why female artistes these days don’t get it [the artiste of the year award].

She noted that the music industry could not solely be faulted for the inability of female artistes to win the artiste of the year award in recent times, but female artistes themselves, compounded by the mindset of Ghanaians, were equally responsible for the unfortunate situation.

“It is always about the men. The people are not focusing on the women and I blame the ladies…I also blame the industry because they are not giving the women chances [to] come up,” Afia said.