Noella wiyaala biography examples

Noella Wiyaala (known under the stage name Wiyaala) is a Ghanaian Afro-pop singer-songwriter who sings in her native Sissala and Waale dialects and English, often combining all three languages within her songs.

Wiyaala’s first release after the breakup with Black N Peach was the single “Make Me Dance”. Recognized for her sense of fashion, stage dressing and style, Wiyaala is influential throughout the world with Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post citing her as a role model. Sherifa Gunu was the inspiration for her song “Africa.”

Her music has been described as Afro-pop or Afro-rock with elements of tribal folk music, while her most recent track, “Rock My Body,” which she released in June 2013 alongside Ghanaian reggae musician Jupitar, leans more towards reggae and dancehall.

Her Sisaala song “Tinambayai” has been interpreted as a protest against women’s exploitation in Africa. Her first single, “Make Me Dance,” featured Ghana’s first ever underwater sequences in a music video, and was swiftly followed by the single “Rock My Body,” which became a hit and earned her two wins at the 2014 All Africa Music Awards.

Wiyaala’s “official” first album, “Wiyaala,” was released in November 2014 and was nominated for album of the year at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards 2015 and the All Africa Music Awards 2015.

As part of the Ghanaian band Black N Peach won the 2012 Vodafone ICONS Mixed Edition contest sponsored by fellow Ghanaian DJ “Benny Blanco,” singing Tina Turner’s “Simply The Best.”

After only one hit (“Wonkoa”), she quit the Black N Peach band in April 2013 to pursue a solo career with Djimba World Records.

She also attended Takoradi Polytechnic on an art and design course. In 2018, Wiyaala, alongside Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American to be elected into the US Congress and Sahle-Work Zewde, Ethiopia’s first female president and others, was selected as one of BBC News “African Women We Celebrated in 2018”.

In elementary school, the guys used to call her “man-woman,” and she now cultivates an androgynous image of herself, for which she has been compared to Grace Jones. In February 2016 Wiyaala made her movie debut in the Ghanaian feature film No Man’s Land.[63] and for which she has been nominated as the Golden Discovery 2016 at the Golden Movie Awards.

After attending Kansec Secondary High School, Wiyaala’s musical career began in earnest when she joined the local music scene in Wa which centred around Echo Soundz Recording Studios. She creates her own stage costumes and jewelry to highlight the culture of the people in her hometown. Wiyaala was nominated for the Ghana Sports Excellence Awards 2014 as Best Sporting Artist.

Wiyaala took home two of the coveted 23.9-carat gold-plated trophies for “The Most Promising Artist in Africa” and “The Revelation of the African Continent” at the maiden edition of the All Africa Music Awards, which took place on December 27, 2014 in Lagos.

The single “Go Go Black Stars…Goal!”, released in April 2014, on the Djimba World Records label, sung in English and Ghanaian languages, also features tribal drums and stadium choruses.[43] The same song had been picked up as the unofficial hymn of the national football team of Ghana for the 2014 World Cup.

Wiyaala got nominated as Best Sporting Artist in Ghana Sports Excellence Awards 2014. Her first release was “Make Me Dance” which featured Ghana’s first-ever underwater scenes in a music video,[20] and soon afterwards the single “Rock My Body”, which quickly became a hit and won her two awards at the 2014 edition of the All Africa Music Awards.

Her music is a potent fusion of West African folk songs and stadium Afro-pop informed by her personal interpretation of traditional West African mythology and storytelling brought to life with spectacularly energetic traditional dance moves.

The second of four sisters and thanks to a musical mother, she “dodged” FGM and child marriage, whilst also attracting attention as a child entertainer, dancer, artist, and athlete, despite growing up in a patriarchal society frequently hostile to artistic growth.

In 2012, she made the long journey to the capital city, Accra, and against the odds won an emphatic victory in the Vodafone Icons Reality Show.

She left the Black N Peach band during April 2013, after having released one single (“Wonkoa”), to pursue a solo career with Djimba World Records.