We got a Ghanaian afro pop, dancehall and R&B artiste sitting pretty on our AOTW segment today. It’s a she. A BET Award nominee, a non-Nigerian once nominated at the Nigerian Entertainment Award and a four time winner of Ghana Music Awards -Female Vocalist of the year (at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards). She is signed to the award-winning record label Lynx Entertainment (label mate to Kuami Eugene and…) It’s sort of boxing my mind also that she’s won multiple awards in her first year as a solo artist proving that she can rub shoulders with the best in the business with her powerhouse voice.
Obviously those accolades must have opened many doors for her as she’s representing hard right now being one of the biggest names in the Ghanaian music industry. Now let’s reveal the songstress . Better called by her stage name, MzVee. She was born Vera Harmenoo-Kpeda on 23rd June in Accra to Ernest Hamenoo-Kpeda, a businessman, and Florence Hamenoo-Kpeda, a caterer. She has two older sisters and a brother and attended St Martin de Porres School in Accra in her early years. She moved on to St Mary’s Senior High School and proceeded to study Business Administration at Ghana Telecom University.
MzVee first burst onto the Ghanaian music scene in the summer of 2012 as the lead singer of Lynx Entertainment’s girl band D3. The band, released hit singles such as ‘Good Girls Gone Bad’ and ‘Gyani Gyani’ before splitting at the end of 2013 due to educational commitments of the young group members.
Re-Vee-Lation – the album (2014): The ‘Re-Vee-Lation’ album launch took place at the car park of the Accra Mall and was heavily patronized by a crowd of over five thousand avid fans while she put on a thrilling performance with a host of other musicians and celebrities afterwards. I mean the launch of this album in November 2014 could be described as the culmination of her hard work throughout the year and a clear manifestation that she had become a mainstay in the Ghanaian music industry.
MzVee launched her solo career with debut single ‘Borkor Borkor’ released in January 2014.[8] She followed this with hit single ‘Natural Girl’[9] and went on to win the ‘Unsung Artiste Award’ at the 2014 Ghana Music Awards.[10] Her debut album was released in November 2014[1] and features collaborations with several award-winning artistes such as Stonebwoy, VIP, Shatta Wale, Richie Mensah, Manifest and Didier Awadi.
Shes got this trademark -natural African hair. Did that inspire the her hit single ‘Natural Girl’?
Natural Girl’ has made her an inspiration to young girls across Africa who want to celebrate their natural look.
Following the success of her award-winning debut album, MzVee released her second album titled Verified in November 2015 to rave reviews. The album has earned MzVee 7 nominations at the 2016 Ghana Music Awards including ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Record of the Year’ for the single ‘Abofra’ which features Efya.
Her highly anticipated third album DaaVee was released in May 2017.
Nominated at the KORA All Africa Music Awards in 2015. KORA is a music awards given annually for musical achievement in sub-Saharan Africa
Also nominated Reggae Song Of The Year at the Ghana Music Awards 2015
it is remarkable how much progress she has made in 4 years. Vera has been described by industry pundits as “the Next Big Thing” in Ghanaian music and with her good looks and talent;
She has also won the hearts of both the young and the older demographic of music fans with her well noted humility coupled with her talent
CONTROVERSY
In 2016, MzVee Responded to Critics of Her Vgma Female Artist of the Year Nomination. She said that she deserves her honors following the announcement of MzVee’s VGMA nomination, controversial Ghanaian artsit Wanloz De Koborlor shared a series of tweets saying that MzVee did not deserve the nomination saying Kofi Kinaata, the popular “Confessions” hit-maker should have gotten a nomination.
She said “During the festive season, I was on every stage. Before that I had my own concert and even before that, I was doing my high school tour. Before that was BET and before that was Ghana Music Awards. I’ve been taking awards and I’ve been doing many things to make my fans happy.” she said. She added that although she feels that there’s no reason for her not to have been nominated, she also felt that everyone is entitled to their opinion.
In 2017, she made comments which seemed to suggest that she was taking a dig fellow female artist Ebony. Earlier this year, MzVee cleared the air on controversy and feud with Ebony. She said she was not referring to Ebony when she made the comment pointing fingers at the publication for misconstruing her words in order to gain more readership. However, she used to be bothered by the negative reportage about her but now she has a tougher skin and has learnt to deal with it.
Chief Executive Office for Ruff Town Records, Ricky Nana Agyemang known popularly as Bullet also disclosed this while debunking claims that his artiste, Ebony had problems with MzVee saying there was no beef between Ebony and MzVee Both artiste had a song which is not out there. While Ebony was alive, there were several reports that indicated that she had problems with her colleague Dancehall artiste, MzVee which turned out not to be the truth. MzVee has in several interview indicated that she has no problems with any female artiste and is elated that a lot of them are springing up in the industry.
Whether true or not, possibly she’s got very cool relationship with colleagues doing music in GH coz she actually performed at Becca At 10 years Concert in 2017
Singer has also debunked assertions that she once dated, Stonebwoy describing her relationship with Stonebwoy as “friendly” She disclosed during a radio interview that she thinks Ghanaians get happy and excited when they see two of their stars like that and the fact that they have their own idea when they see both of them but the two were never together including nothing like crushing on each other saying no truth in that according to her
Recently in March, she reported that men have been sliding into her DM on social media, and are constantly asking for sex on a daily basis. “I receive tons of messages in my DM all the time. They say a lot including I like your album, your teeth are white. I receive very interesting ones, mostly sexual because I can’t see them and I’m sure if they see me in person they cannot say those things.” It is a virtual world! Anybody can slide into your DM to request or say anything they want. But she responds quickly to inspiring messages from her fans and other people she knows.
If you are among those asking MzVee for sex as she opened up about happenings on her social media she never does random men, you got to be up your game and package yourself well. She might just respond your inspirational message. She quite picky viz a viz her preferred man : dark skinned guy. Here is a chance for DJ_MCM to slide into her DM Afterall it’s a virtual world. Linx, What is your complexion choice for a partner?
ALBUM
Re-Vee-Lation (2014): Nominated Album Of The Year at the Ghana Music Awards in 2015
Verified (2015)
DaaVee : 1st May 2017
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
She has also been nominated in the ‘Best Urban Artist’ category at the 2016 KORA Music Awards[and received 7 nominations at the 2016 Ghana Music Awards including Songwriter of the Year with Richie Mensah and Efya, Album of the Year and Best Female Vocalist.
She has won multiple awards in her first year as a solo artist, and by my count she’s won for herself (no music attached) 6 times with more than 9 nominations. Herself award winnings include New Artiste of the Year at the 2015 Ghana Music Awards, and Most Promising Act at the 2015 Ghana Music Honours.
Herself nominations: BET Awards for Best New International Artist 2015 and Best International Act Africa in 2016
CONCLUSION
There’s nothing timid about MzVee’s artistry. This is largely demonstrated in her music. MzVee is representing hard right now. We don’t think she’s got any big international collaborations yet but apart from collaborations our very own Patoranking, Yemi Alade among others, she has had graceful stage presence with multiple award-winning producer, Richie Mensah, Afriyie, Ayigbe Edem and Okyeame Kwame. She has followed the release of two covers of dancehall songs, Harmattan and Hole in One with the release of her debut single ‘Borkor Borkor’ which features VIP. she has always promised her fans expect something big since last year.
