I Broke My Virginity At 17…

Star singer Efya doesn’t just have talent; she has a stash of interesting tales that many of her fans are not privy to.
Indeed, on any normal day, she is described as a conscious legend in the making and a strong young woman for that matter.

She has a great sense of humour and doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind. No wonder she dug into her private past and made some interesting revelations in an exclusive juicy interview with News-One.
Many celebrities will not like to talk about how they broke their virginity but not Efya.

She told this paper she actually planned to break her virginity and did so at age 17. She did that because she loved her boyfriend whom she had dated for three years, and so decided to lose her virginity to him. But unfortunately, the boy broke her heart. “I was 17 years old and I actually planned it. I decided to do it at 17. My birthday was April 10, so I decided to do it 10 days after my birthday. So I did it on April 21. I did it with my first boyfriend, his name is Kobby. I loved him but he broke my heart. I wasn’t scared because I wanted to have sex and I was ready. I don’t know if he was a virgin,” Efya revealed.

Efya said she was re-visiting the heartbreak experience in her upcoming 12-track album titled, ‘Love Genesis’. She disclosed that the album is the latest thing to happen to the music industry this year. “Genesis’ is for my beginning but ‘love’ because most of the songs on the album are emotional. I had been with my guy for five years straight, and got my heartbroken. I went through the whole heartbreak thing. It was interesting because it made me a strong woman. Now I know what I want.”

Currently she said she is single, not dating, not attached and sleeps alone even on cold nights. Interestingly, she is not searching for a guy.

However she said if she was going into any relationship in the future, it would be with “someone who loves me for me.” But for now, her boyfriend is her music.

Efya was indeed a phenomenal singer last year 2011. She thrilled a lot of crowds at different shows and has promised to do same this year.

Currently, her upcoming album will hit the scenes in April as well as an upcoming nationwide tour, which is still in its planning stages. Also, her latest video is in the making. She made history as one of Ghana’s youngest music stars to have picked an award at the last City People awards in Nigeria, as well as performed with some of the mightiest on the African continent. She also shared a stage with Hugh Masekela recently. “…but she was fantastic; the things she did were like medieval and artistes like that need a medieval setting. See, artistes like Efya need her own club, the way Fela had the shrine. You know but she needs her own place where she can do this stuff,” Hugh Masekela said about Efya after sharing a stage with her.

“I met Hugh Masekela here in Ghana and Lagos. We performed together. It’s good to have somebody like him behind my back. It is a big deal to me that somebody like Hugh Masekela believes in what I’m doing because he knows what I’m doing. Bless you Hugh,” Efya told News-One.
Asked which of her 2011 shows was her best, she noted,” I don’t know what to say about it. All the shows were exciting. All I need is just give me the microphone and I would deliver. “Lagos has been good too. I mean for a Ghanaian artiste to be recognized there, I feel happy and excited about it. I do shows out there. Thank you Lagos.”
Currently she aspires for international recognition and believes she would make it.

“Our music industry is growing. Now we have so many producers and so many kinds of music. We get nominated for MAMAs, we got nominated for the BET awards. That means if I can get there, that’s cool. Yea, it’s all about going there, I want to be a legend; I just don’t want to be that girl that came and sang and left.”

Efya was born Jane Fara Fauzzier Afia Boafowaa Yahaya Awindor on April 10, 1987, in Kumasi, Ghana. She moved to Accra when her mother, Nana Adjoa Awindor, now Nana Hemaa Adjoa Awindor, relocated to attend NAFTI Film School.

Due to the nature of her mother’s ‘Greetings From Abroad’ programme, young Efya found herself travelling around the world extensively. Imbibing several cultures along the line, she took up ballet and athletics – two disciplines she practices to this day.

A singer, songwriter, and composer, her songs are unique. She started singing from the church. “My family is musically oriented. My grandfather is a full gospel member. My aunties were in the choir. My mother was in the choir too. I followed in the choir. So music has been part of my life since I was young. I used to listen to gospel a lot.”
Singing since she was 9 years old, Efya didn’t quite decide to do it professionally until she auditioned and gained national recognition in 2008 as the first runner-up of Charter House’s ‘Stars Of The Future’. Prior to music, she had dabbled in everything from understudying her mother in film production to track sports in Yaa Asantewaa Girls’ High School.

Her emergence on the music scene landed her and the winner of Stars of the Future a three-year recording deal with the event company, but they ended up recording only one group debut, ‘Irene & Jane Unveiled’, which was released in South Africa only.

Having made her entrance onto the music scene through Charter House, Efya was able to secure a slot on all of the media giant’s concerts and events. However, once her contract with Charter House ended and she found herself a free agent once more, she began to juggle playing shows while reading Theater Arts (Directing and Music) at the University of Ghana, Legon. Efya has played countless gigs across Nigeria and Ghana, averaging 2 or 3 appearances a week and has been featured by artistes in both countries on released songs and future projects which has helped her build a vast following.

She is presently putting the finishing touches on her highly anticipated debut studio album ‘Love Genesis’.