The renowned Ghanaian musician, Mzbel has revealed the inspiration behind her hit song ’16 Years’.
According to her, she didn’t think the song was going to travel out of Ghana and have such an impact on individuals.
She recounted:
“16 years, I was in a taxi when I came up with the lyrics. I used to stay with a lot of young girls from James Town. So, I watched how they talk. The way they behaved and Maame Dokono was always on radio talking about rape. We were in a taxi one day, we were listening to Maame Dokono and I was watching how they were reacting to Maame Dokono’s stories and I came up with the song ’16 Years’.
“I started writing in the taxi so when I got home I built on it”.
Mzbel
The ’16 Years’ crooner asserted that the song didn’t change their perception but it changed things for her in terms of bringing funds to her and her touring around the world.
She recalled the reaction people had toward her when the song was released.
She said:
“I didn’t even think it will go outside Ghana; not at all. It was just another nice song I thought I had done and I was going to play one or two shows and that’s it. But the next minute it was in Nigeria, it was in Equatorial Guinea, it was in Liberia, it was in Togo, it was everywhere. ’16 Years’ started taking me out of Ghana and the money was good”.
Mzbel
Also, she recounted when she got discouraged by one of the audience’s comments on the shoe she wore to perform on a show and it really broke her heart that she couldn’t get closer to the crowd during the show.
She stated that there is nothing original about music anymore in Ghana because the new artists didn’t build on the new hiplife in Ghana but rather left it to copy Nigerians who travel all the way to Ghana to listen to Ghanaian beats and go back to their country and add their culture to it.
She said:
“We could have changed hiplife. We could have put more traditional drums in hiplife. We could have made hiplife something that the world would appreciate. ‘Azonto’ went out on its own. Nobody promoted ‘Azonto’; nobody said anything. We could have done something with it but we left it. We wanted to be cool. We could be more cool with something original”.
Mzbel
Mzbel says music came to her by chance
The ’16 Years’ crooner asserted that she had always wanted to be in the limelight but not through music.
She recalled when she worked in a studio as a front desk personnel but had to go to the studio to record a freestyle when nobody was there and when the studio started to get busy, the freestyle was played to them as a demo.
She said:
“Music came to me by chance. I have always wanted to be in the limelight but not music”.
Mzbel
The musician revealed how she came by her name ‘Mzbel’. She said that the name ‘Mzbel’ kicked in at the studio where she worked adding that, her boss gave her the name.
She explained that ‘Awoso Me’ was the first song she recorded even though, there were 10 songs on the album, ‘Awoso Me’ was the only song promoted.
She said:
“I woke up one morning and it was all over the place. I had to grant interviews. I had to perform. I was really scared because I hadn’t done anything like that before. And I didn’t think people would want to see me perform. I thought I had just done something and I liked it. I didn’t know people would fall in love with it. And DJs were calling coming over to the studio and I was like wow”.
Mzbel
The renowned Ghanaian musician recalled that she had no competitor at that time but there was an artist ‘Abrewa Nana’ who was into dancehall.
She mentioned that it had not been easy for her to reach the limelight because she had attacks because of how she dressed adding that it affected her mental health.
She recounted:
“I became timid. I couldn’t be myself anymore even when I was stepping out. I couldn’t be among people because I felt that nobody liked me. So when people see me and acting like oh Mzbel, I feel they are faking it”.
Mzbel
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