Sheila Acheampong for years had the urge to sing just like her father, Nana Acheampong, Ghana's legendary Highlife musician.
At age nine, Sheila approached her mother who handed over a cassette to her to record the songs that came to mind. She was admonished not to play it to anyone else until her father returned from his trip abroad.
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She, however, broke the agreement, leading to her mother's displeasure.
Sheila in an interview with Paula Amma Broni on GhanaWeb TV's Talkertainment intimated that her passion for singing came as a vibe and although she tried to suppress it, there was an urge to let the world hear her voice.
"When I was a child between 9 and 10 years, I had that vibe but then I wasn't really responding to it. The melodies and lyrics just kept popping into my head, so I told my mum. I told her I was feeling this vibe. By that time my dad was out of the country so I told my mum.
"She got me an empty cassette and I recorded my thoughts on it. She said that when my dad returned we were going to show my recordings to him. I however broke the terms and conditions of not playing what I had recorded to another soul...I made sure everyone had listened to what I recorded, all my friends, the whole house. My mum got bored, we didn't really work on it and after a while, I wasn't feeling the vibe," she narrated.
After procrastinating and putting her musical career on hold for years, she finally ventured into active music in 2021. This was after her younger sister, singer Gyakie and other close friends had encouraged Sheila to pursue her 'abandoned' dream.
"Somewhere in 2010, the vibes started coming and I worked on it but I didn't record an official song. I said to myself, should I do music or not? I was really in doubt when Gyakie started. I said, go Gyakie, you have my love and support let's do this but once you are called, you can't stop it. When you have passion for something, you can't say you won't do it...one day my sister asked why I haven't responded to my call...and that was it. I started in 2020 but even with that, it became official in 2021," she told GhanaWeb.
