Gyakie

In 2020 a 20-year-old KNUST student released a five-track EP called Seed, and one of its songs, "Forever", went to number one in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. That student was Jackline Acheampong, now known as Gyakie, and within a year the song had a remix with the Nigerian singer Omah Lay and a record deal with Sony Music behind it.

A musician's daughter

Gyakie was born on 16 December 1999 in Kumasi, the daughter of the highlife singer Nana Acheampong. By the age of eight she was following her father into the studio. She attended T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School in Kumasi and studied International Business at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). She has named the Nigerian singer Aṣa and Omar Sterling of R2Bees among her influences.

From "Love Is Pretty" to "Forever"

Her first single, "Love Is Pretty", came out in February 2019, followed by "Never Like This". Seed arrived in August 2020 on the Flip The Music label, and "Forever" carried it far beyond Ghana. The Omah Lay remix followed in March 2021, and that year she signed an international deal with Sony Music Entertainment, RCA Records UK and Sony Music Africa.

My Diary and After Midnight

Her second EP, My Diary, came out in July 2022 with a feature from Davido. Singles including "Something" (2022), "Rent Free" (2023) and "December" (2024) followed before her debut album, After Midnight, on 29 August 2025. Forbes Africa named her in its 30 Under 30 class of 2025, and After Midnight earned a South African Music Awards nomination in 2026. In October 2026 she released "Your Body (Crazy)" after a new distribution deal with Warner Music Africa.

Awards

"Forever (Remix)" won International Collaboration of the Year at the 2022 Ghana Music Awards. At the 3Music Awards she was Emerging Woman of the Year in 2021 and Woman of the Year in 2022.