Efya was raised in Accra to a musical household. Her mother, when not entertaining the nation on TV, was a keen singer, while her dad played guitar. She discovered she could sing at the same place so many others from her community have – at church. “That was a development space for me, to develop my voice. It was church that helped bring out my confidence and teach me to sing in front of a lot of people,” she says, describing that time as “a blessing.” As her love for music grew, she researched new music online, and regularly raided her mom’s record collection. “Highlife music, Whitney Houston, a little bit of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu… these were very big influences for me. All of these came together to structure my sound today.”