Skyly

Her mum's speakers played whatever was on. “Literally any type of music. Pop, highlife, R&B, Afrobeat,” Skyly says of the music in the house she grew up in. She was about three, by her own account, and already keeping up: “I will sing all those songs word for word.”

That house was “in a small town in Accra with my mum and 3 siblings,” she says. The singing soon went beyond the house. “I began singing at church and going for talent shows, that's is when I realized I wanna do music forever.”

Forever now has a next step. Skyly has an upcoming single, “Winter”, which she calls a heartbreak song. She has also recorded a second song, “Stay Out”. Both are due soon, and no release date has been announced for either. This profile is built from her own written answers to TCC Art Life's questions, quoted as she sent them.

Asked who Skyly is, she answered in the third person: “Skyly is an artist in every way. She loves to write, sing and draw and knows she will be a global superstar one day.” She names the goal without qualifying it.

Her description of her sound is three words long: “soulful, fun, romantic.” Until the songs are out, those words are the only description this story offers.

She names one act as shaping her. In high school 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,” she says.

That work has reached “Winter”. She describes it as “a heartbreak song of a girl wanting to be loved right by her partner and I think everyone goes through that on a daily basis.” She also says who the song is for. It is, in her words, “a song to the people who feel that way including myself.”

How “Winter” came together is still to be told. Even less is known about “Stay Out”, so this story leaves it at its title.

Her answers do include one collaboration. Of “I'm Sorry”, made with SSolja, she says: “working on ‘I'm sorry’with ssolja 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 did not name the genre, and this story has not confirmed a release of the track.

Making music in Accra right now, she says, starts with the cost. “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, in the same answer: “So is an experience and I know one day it will all pay off.”

What she wants a listener to take away comes as a list of her own: “I want them to feel happy, fun, and seen and hopeful cause the world needs that right now.”

On what comes next, she did not give a plan or a date. She gave this instead: “I'm still gonna keep making music cause is part of my life. I can't live without it it follows me wherever I go.”

“Winter” does not have a date yet. It is coming soon.

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