Skyly

It started with her mum's speakers. "my mum use to have this speakers that she plays music on, literally any type of music," Skyly says. "Pop, highlife, R&B, Afrobeat." She was about three, by her own count, and she did not just listen: "I will sing all those songs word for word."

She grew up, in her words, "in a small town in Accra with my mum and 3 siblings." From there the singing moved to church and to talent shows. "I began singing at church and going for talent shows, that's is when I realized I wanna do music forever."

In her answers to Art Life, she introduces herself in the third person, with no hedging: "Skyly is an artist in every way. She loves to write, sing and draw and knows she will be a global superstar one day."

Asked to describe her music to someone who has never heard it, she uses three words: "I will say soulful, fun, romantic."

The influence she names arrived in high school, when she discovered Blackpink. "Those girls where so talented and they inspired the young me so much that I genuinely wanted to be like them one day and since then I have been working hard to get there."

Her next single is "Winter". She calls it "a heartbreak song of a girl wanting to be loved right by her partner." She does not keep it at arm's length. "I think everyone goes through that on a daily basis," she says, and "this is a song to the people who feel that way including myself."

Max says she has also recorded a song called "Stay Out". Release dates for both songs are still to be announced.

She also worked with SSolja on "I'm Sorry", and she describes the session as a first. Working on the song, she says, "was an amazing experience for me. I have never tried that kind of genre before so doing it for the first time was really fun. I will love to do more next time."

She is plain about what it takes to make music in Accra right now. "it's a hustle! The sleepless nights the long journeys, it's so stressful but I have learnt that to get to where you want to be you are gonna go through this things." Then she turns it around: "So is an experience and I know one day it will all pay off."

What she wants a listener to take away is just as direct. "I want them to feel happy, fun, and seen and hopeful cause the world needs that right now."

Asked what comes next, she answers with the work itself. "I'm still gonna keep making music cause is part of my life." The girl who sang every song off her mum's speakers says the same thing about music now as then: "it follows me wherever I go."

“I want them to feel happy, fun, and seen and hopeful cause the world needs that right now.”