 Okay so I'm gonna be having a conversation with someone who if you do listen to a lot of Ghanaian music you should know already however I'm going to let her introduce herself today we're gonna talk about music we're gonna talk about the fact that she's doing something completely different at the moment and a little bit more about life and everything in between so I'm gonna let her introduce herself yeah I don't often do this on the channel so yeah who are we having here? Hi everyone my name is Adoma and I'm a singer I'm an actress I like to think of myself as a creative and all-round entertainer just because there might be stuff that I might double in in the future that I'm not even aware of but yeah basically that's who I am wonderful okay so yeah for me this is is it is it a word serendipity? What's serendipity? It's a word it's a word right? Yeah so when I was in radio and Adoma started music I remember interviewing her on the show brunch in the city when she was doing the covers and the mashups and all those things so Adoma was doing music for a while and then she vanished so she's here to tell us the story how she's been and acting and how all that happened so I don't know where she wants to start from okay so let me start from dipping dipping a bit into okay so I started music in 2015 quite by accident so music has always been in my family I've grown up with music my my family has always been like a group of singers instrumentalist just something it's just around you all the time there's a an in-house joke we called ourselves the Ajiman Von Trapp family sometimes we would sing and yeah we like to do those corny things families do sometimes but yeah I never really thought of music as a career that I could do not not because I didn't think I was good enough or anything it just didn't cross my mind as a thing that I was going to do could do for me what I actually wanted to do was act so it's very interesting because I feel like things have come full circle I wanted to act I used to go for auditions at the time but I then used to be very very introverted I still am a bit introverted but I feel like the industry being in the industry for about seven years has made me a bit more outspoken than I normally would be so I remember that time I used to have panic attacks it's very introverted so I'll practice my monologues and everything but go in front of the the panel and completely lose it and of course they would pick you because you didn't do a good job how did that make you feel I used to feel so bad and I wanted to figure out how to come out of my shell which is a good thing because I feel music helped me do that yeah but yeah back to music um a friend of mine at some point in my life heard me sing and started to put a lot of pressure your voice is amazing the world should hear your voice shouldn't just be me and a few other close friends and your phone and your recorder yeah like do something record a cover I don't know I don't know very confident for me wasn't like I knew I could sing but I wasn't very confident about my abilities as a singer like yeah he used to put a lot of pressure was almost like on a daily basis so honestly it was to get him off my back that I finally succumbed and did a cover and he's also a filmmaker so he decided to shoot a small video for the cover that I did which was the Baphira Adonai mashup yeah and so for me it was like yeah yeah we had fun and I remember he the funny thing is he used to talk about where you blew I'll be your manager and we'll do this I was just like bro just calm down it's not that deep I didn't ever think it for me was just talks and we laugh about it but he was serious I honestly wasn't taking anything yeah but anyways we did the cover I was proud of myself I'm like yeah I done a dance a song and it was nice I just thought was one of those things that would be on YouTube I'd pass by me to get like maybe 50 views and that's it passed by a few times and be proud of myself with my life surprisingly it blew up and all of a sudden everybody's talking about people are booking Adomar for gigs and it was very from that one video interviews and people saw the video and thought oh that was really cool can you come and sing at my wedding can you come and sing at this event I'm opening this restaurant can you come in yeah it really started that way and it was all everywhere TV radio stations now I would walk in in town and people would see me and freak out which was very uncomfortable for me because I've always been a very private person so it was a lot going on and I feel so but for me and that's sort of the person who shot the video I told you young mentioned earlier on yeah you'll be your manager so instantaneously that just happened it's like I told you that you blow yeah it has happened I'm your manager let's let's start this I wasn't too sure but I just thought okay go with it it's working and people seem to be impressed I didn't think I was I didn't feel very confident about my voice but a lot of people feel felt very impressed by it so I'm okay that's fine let's let's do this I wasn't too sure I was very uncertain but I had my team fired up my manager at the time would have his iPad with both mashups the evolution of GH mashup and he'd be at an event or any events he's at and you'd literally be going to people yeah so have you watched this video this is my my artist I don't know if you should check her out she's really amazing literally that's how that's how music started for me but along the line I feel like things were happening a little too fast I remember and this is sad and I feel very sad talking about this right now but it was a real moment for me at the time when I found out I was nominated for unsung artist of the year I remember feeling a combination of feelings it was I was very happy because and I was happy because if it's it's good news for anybody doing music it is good news and my team had put in so much work me and my team had put in so much work and it was a good recognition it's it's accolades it's good but I remember also feeling very scared and I didn't want to win because I felt like things had started off so fast for me and it's like literally overnight that's what it felt like one day I was working about nobody knows who I am literally then literally the next day I'm at them I had to stop the new tutorial I was at the bus stop trying to hop into my church so now like you are now a celebrity basically so you can't even be it was just too much for me too fast and it felt like when I was nominated it was going to even and I felt like so I was like trying so hard to keep up and it was very uncomfortable and I remember thinking I didn't want this just because I wanted a moment where things were just calm so that I can catch my breath and I wasn't getting that I remember talking to my dad about it is it am I a terrible person to not want like it feels like he started this campaign on social media and everybody's supporting you vote I do my people I do not know I'm painting votes I do not to win and song and you the person as people are fighting for you are sitting there having second thoughts and not even wanting it and I remember having a conversation with my dad very close to my dad by the way I remember having that conversation with my dad and he just calmed me down and reminded me at the time when I was acting I remember I had done some auditions there was a school I had gone into audition for and I actually got in but the timing was very odd so I couldn't go I remember feeling very devastated and my dad had told me I shouldn't worry everything would happen at the right time this is just not the time but if it's meant to happen it will happen so at the time where I was panicking about the VGMA nomination he said pretty much said the same thing calm down if you are meant to win it you will and and God won't give you something that you can't carry so you might feel like it's too much but if it's meant to be if it's not meant to be it will not happen but if he feels everything is happening the way supposed to be at the right time so I took that to console myself for a bit and I remember going for the announcement on Bella Mundi's show with the other artists and I remember all of them feeling that oh yeah people came in so much confidence me I was just sitting down there like can they announce the winner so I can go home and try and do other things because at the time I remember time I was still very this was still very relatively new so I was still very skittish and very to myself and I don't want too many crowds I still don't like crowds but I'm so much better right now but yeah to my shock we were standing there and they mentioned Aduma I remember confused I remember Bella Mundi actually had to like no for real as Aduma she turned it in so like how like if it was wild and I remember panicking that oh my god this had started so fast and it's going to even worse and then there was trolling on social media because at the VGM is there was like a huge divide when I performed it was either people hated it or people loved it I remember not even being able to go on social media so because my team had to keep me from the bad comments and there were good comments but this did you feel like you needed to know both the good and the bad was it one of those moments where there's something that scares you but you still want to know yeah yeah I still wanted to know but it definitely wasn't very helpful because I internalized a lot and it was hard so I remember sometime my management had to take my phone from me and nobody wants to see anything just so that it wouldn't affect me but yeah I remember I remember just praying and wishing things would slow down and I felt bad for feeling that way because the people around me had people had I remember my manager at the time was supposed to go outside and do his masters but he also is a creative and wanted to this music and being part of music making was a huge dream for him but he thought it would be something that would happen later on and decided to stall his good school to stay here and push my so you are sitting down there feeling very bad for not wanting it yeah but for me I wasn't ready and it was just too much too soon so it started to really affect me and this internally was chaotic people might have seen me outside and thought I was very composed and no it was it was terrible we had I had a lot of blow-ups within the team because there's just so much I didn't know how to communicate if I if people wanted someone wanted to put someone suggested to work on a song I wanted to take my time with it and it's like me the buzz is happening right now you can't chill and I'm it just it was a lot of internalized frustrations and I will end up lashing out that people are necessarily like nothing calls be for someone to be yelled out like that and it was just really hard and I think it's made the team a bit confused and things were not going well within the team and with me as well so I feel like that probably started the dip because I was it was a little too much and I think the buzz to generally die out if you don't know exactly so that started dying down and I remember feeling relieved but sad because I was relieved that finally it's a bit calm but so sad because people had left things that they could be doing for themselves to it was very you know both ways for me but in that space I remember I'm still realizing and a bit because I didn't know at the time that I wanted to do music it just like I said it happened so for me I I knew that I enjoyed making music I enjoyed being on stage I really did enjoy it but is I would have felt better about making a conscious decision about this is what I want to do and like it's so much better if you do that then it just comes in you enjoy it alright but yeah let's just go with the flow so I remember questioning whether I really wanted to do this and there was so much going on as outside I am mine I had to switch management my manager had to leave to do something else I have to get another manager and that didn't work out that this was the second manager that actually kickstarted my acting career that was the second one but that too didn't go well so I had to switch so it just felt like I was bouncing around for a while and I myself I didn't know necessarily know what I wanted to do but and so ended up in whoo ended up in yeah this is very hard to talk about but ended up in a very bad situation with a record label I don't want to mention their names because they're quite popular but the the whole thing it started off with them wanting to help and you know push because they really believed in the talent but things went terribly sour so sour that I quit like I could not and it didn't quit because I got to the point where I quit no it literally became toxic for me I for the first time had a panic attack and every single time I would try to sing a song or anything music related would come up I would have a panic attack I remember going to Nigeria at the time I was acting or I should go more into my acting story but yeah there's a point where I had to be in Nigeria to film and people would follow because we're following each other on set and they would come to my social media I do my music oh you're a musician oh then come and sing and I would start to panic and it was very confusing to everybody because I give you a singer thing I was going through so much and for me music was a I couldn't it felt like I was being killed if I tried to touch it so I did quit at a point but I'm very happy because I feel like acting came at the point to save me and rekindle my love for music so for me both careers I can't pick a favorite I feel like they are very intertwined acting what I always wanted to do music what I was very very good at but I didn't realize and I had a bit of a challenge with it it had to dip but acting helped me find my love for music and now I'm acting and I'm doing music for me like both careers are so like it's a twine and very very important for me so yeah basically that's how the deep happened and music came at a time to save you we're gonna talk a bit about the acting in the later yeah but I want to find out something that's dear to me and I talk about all the time yeah did you get help and I I feel like in this part of the world you know it's very weird to talk about mental health people don't acknowledge that it's a real thing and they just feel like you're sad you even with your family that's the thing I I didn't know how to have those conversations with my family because I felt that that's how they would like a traditional African family that's how they would perceive it and for me personally I don't even know that I was very aware like I've heard of you know therapy and all of those things but I don't think that properly processed and was like aware of oh you I need help and I should get help so for a long time I was battling these things on my own and I remember proper deteriorating like there was a period where for like two weeks I did not step out of my room and I did not eat and I remember someone freaking out because that's when I lost a ridiculous amount of weight someone had seen me two weeks prior and I was skinny but not thin and they saw me again two weeks later and they yelled because I got lost to it because I was really going through things and I feel like the reaction I got there made me it hadn't for me I was in my head dealing with my thing I didn't I don't know how to explain it like I didn't I wasn't fully aware of what was going on it's like you're just in that space but seeing people's reaction to what was going on made me realize that it was serious so for me I started to I didn't know how to talk about it so I used to be online a lot and I used to read about therapy a lot and I remember there's an app that I saw which you know the offer therapy options and those kinds of things so I downloaded it but I couldn't even follow through with it although I did get some good tips from it it was much much much later that I decided to actually go for therapy but for me in the midst of all of that I just knew that one I can't do music to I need to be out of this space and yet because in my house my dad has been so supportive when I said I wanted to do music he donated he has a study room or a steady pulse literally which is very separate from the main house because we're a lot of kids so I think he just wanted a space where he can be on his own and steady read dollar that and not be in there he donated that whole space to me so first studio and just make your music so it's been super supportive but the sad part is my home was my music hub so I can't come and have a sanctuary in my house without seeing the place where I make music it was it was too much so I know that I couldn't do music I needed to be out of this space and I just I wanted to do something else I I wasn't even thinking of acting at the time I just knew I wasn't doing music I wanted to be out of this space out of this environment I want to do something else and so I remember telling him about it and he's like so what do you want because my dad is so supportive like if he can't tell him if he can't he will if he can't he would see how to but I didn't even know exactly what I wanted I just knew I wanted to be out and he's like oh you go and think about it properly it was at that point that the Nigerian acting gay came it was so wild because I remember praying about it and thinking about it and at that point I don't even know how that happened and there I just shot a film it was in premiering theaters and one of the crew for that production had helped me secure a job in Nigeria so for me was like a lifesaver because this was one I'm out of the environment I'm going to a different country I am not doing music I'm doing something else and this is also something else that I'm so passionate about so it was like a I couldn't pick that off a fast enough he literally told me a week prior we need to move in a week I was ready before the week I packed my bags like I just wanted to go and I feel like that was really really helpful because doing something else immersing myself in something completely different being in a new environment meeting new people developing excitement for something else gave me the calm I needed even without doing proper therapy I've been doing doubling a bit it gave me some kind of calm so by the time I came back I was in a much much much much much better place and so that it was after coming back that I okay I was like okay you need help you need work and that's when I did start therapy and in the in the process I started to rekindle my love for music again and actually started to make a conscious decision that okay this I don't want to be doing interviews and to be saying music happened it was an accident if it's something that you're passionate about or something you enjoy then you should want to do it because you want to do it so I remember literally I meant to have that conversation with myself do you really want to do this for real like for real and after pondering for a while I realized that yeah I do as much as I love acting I do not I have never felt more fulfilled in my life than I have when I make music it is the I can't I can't explain it and for me to go for the rest of my life and not have that sense of fulfillment would just feel like I've lived a very wasteful purposeless life so I I literally had to come into that realization and then I decided okay I'm going to do music but this time I am picking it's like music picked me the first time but now I am choosing you and so for me I'd luckily for me all the bad experiences even though they were bad they sort of had served as some kind of trial test test run so now I'm coming back I'm doing music I'm very intentional I've had bad experiences I know okay this is not what should be this I like I'm aware now I can make my decisions I know what I want I know the kind of sound I want to do is not I'm doing my covers and someone says oh do original music okay I'll do original music oh it would be nice if you tried this beat okay I'm trying oh it's now you send me music I know I can't tell you oh this is not my vibe oh I can't like this is not yeah I don't want to do this because I know before it was more like okay like let's just go with the flow so I feel like yeah that's that's where that's where it was that's where I'm at right now I'm very very I know what I'm doing I'm very intentional about the music I'm putting out the project actually is in like very creative musical terms curating this journey from when I started so now that's what the entire thing is about but yeah try to be very creative with it but yeah and because of what's acting and the role that acting played in my where I'm right now with music I felt like I needed I can't I can't I can't just make music I can't exclude acting from that process and so that is why I I came up with the Becoming Adoma it's called and Becoming Adoma I came up with that project is that like a film yeah it's so yeah it is a film basically starting from when I started music till now the journey I started off as a butterfly and I had to the life that's the thing I shouldn't have said a butterfly because the life span of a butterfly is really really short I think they live generally for like three weeks and then they're dead so that was a very sustainable but I did not know and literally wasn't sustainable because after a while my music dipped but yeah it's basically chronicling and the butterfly phase and how nice things looked in this like experiment so would you say you are now a phoenix yeah interesting yeah because I had to die go through fire and be reborn from the ashes so literally that's what I am now I don't know that I want to have it as a persona like the way I had the butterfly but the story it feels like that is what it is I started off as Afrabah which is a character and the next projects I put out was barely Adoma which is like because you are not sure what's going on you have things that you feel like are you but then there's a lot of so many things going on and this is like becoming like I'm not Afrabah I'm not barely I'm becoming who I feel I'm supposed to be as an artist and yeah so that's what that's what the project is about that's wonderful yeah that's wonderful and how are the people around you now reacting to should I say the new you yeah and also where do you think the place should be for mental health especially in this industry like do you think that other artists should pay more attention to it as see artists the creators we're going through a lot and I feel like we channel that a lot into our art and it's entertaining because that's what we do it's we channel it into entertainment but there's a lot of pain and a lot of struggles that is in that that people overlook because you're just taking the entertainment value from it so it's very important to check on your friends especially your friends that are creatives and please check on them and just they themselves need to check on them like because the things that you're going through that you're pouring into your art and the art may be so beautiful and people might appreciate it and all of that the industry music industry is not a fun place I've been here it's not fun and people are hustling and trying there's so many things happening so like yeah I feel like it's so important as a musician as a creative just generally for other people it's so important I I needed to start therapy I've not I feel like I'm in a very good space now so I've sort of cut down but I it's not something I've completely left out because I do not want to get to that point but it's really really important to check like get get help get I cannot emphasize it because it's really tough and people I know around these parts it's not something people consider to be a real thing or people just eat as you are sad or you're just trying to be lazy but it's it's real it's I've gone through a lot of I've been suicidal I've attempted suicide at a point it's so weird to talk about because I it's just my my my team and I don't know if my okay no my dad my dad didn't know but yeah just my because I'm really close to my dad so my team and my dad that where's this my first time I'm actually saying this out loud but I did and so it's it's so important to to get help to talk to somebody and I feel like it should be a thing it should be so much more of a thing right now in this country because people are really good is it is it a running theme in your yes yes yes it is because if you're combining two very powerful art forms I think yeah it is definitely advocacy in that space yeah definitely it is and how does it make you feel I'm so I'm so overwhelmed when I think about the project because looking at everything that I have had to go through to get here I I'm I'm I'm proud of the journey I I would not have wished it's have to go through this process but I'm very happy that it did because I feel like there are people so many people that can relate and people that would watch it and would find some connection and it would serve as some help to them for me I just don't want it to be entertainment like there's that factor but there's so much more to it than that I want people to identify with the journey and that's it soothe you if if it's possible let it inspire you to to get help if you can like yeah for me it's a very it's come full circle for me and it's still a journey I wouldn't say I'm like 100% but like I was on negative they're about time way way above 50% right now so that's a good thing but like I think life is in phases you know things coming things go I I do know that's important too to still you know to still stay in that space where you know that you're your best self and to get help and to interact with people that are good for your mental state stay away from that's what I was coming to the world is still worlding yeah so I was just gonna find out what you're going to do different in terms of going through social media and all these things that people say that barely know you yeah and how it gets to you how are you yeah for me I'm the biggest the most important thing to me in life is peace of mind I do not play with my peace I do not joke like I do not so I'm very very very particular about the things that I allow into my space if you are toxic if there I would exclude I would remove myself with a quickness because I know where I've been and I do not want to go back there and it's the little little things doesn't seem like such a big deal at first but it just starts small and then becomes a big thing so for me I'm I curate my space very very I'm very particular I've muted so many things on Twitter for example that I do not want to see I don't make it a habit of being there too often for one because there's so much going on and you don't I don't want to be affected there sometimes I just scroll by and I read a tweet and it can mess up my entirety and I'm just like why why did I even so I'm like I'm very very very particular I don't like to spend so much time there I'm very particular about the people who are very close to me because I don't need any I don't I don't need any of that energy people who I date people like my friend here there's drama because I do not do drama it's funny because I act I act in drama but I do not do drama in real life yeah so yeah that's that's how that's been for me it's very very very very very intentional very it's been wonderful talking to you yeah I've really enjoyed it yeah and I hope anybody who watches this also does take a lot from this yeah I'm a staunch advocate for the conversations like this especially ones that bring out topics of mental health yeah keeping the peace in your mind and your body and everything so yeah okay looks we're looking forward to the project is there a title you didn't mention the title yeah the project is called becoming adumah becoming adumah yes oh yes you did mention that yeah and it's in four parts so there's there's a documentary so and there's a documentary there's the film there's the actual music in itself and then later at the end of the year I'm going to have a musical so I'm still very much about combining both so I want to put do a show because like naturally after your project you have a music show yeah but I don't want to take away the acting bits from it because it's a musical so it is a musical so that's going to be in December the music project in itself will be coming out in September I'm making an announcement kind of like a trailer to the movie bits in like I think May so next week I don't know when this is airing but like next week and this might be airing after after yeah so yeah so this is probably out now so you should check it out if it's out on my website adumah.com um yeah and then there'll be screenings there's going to be a premiere of the film and then there'll be screenings every Sunday after the premiere the premiere will be in July every Sunday after the premiere yeah there'll be screenings of the film we're combining the documentary and the film so it should roughly be about an hour okay for everything almost a feature lens yeah yeah almost yeah yeah yeah basically so that's that's the that's the project and for me it's I'm focused on making it an experience because I for me it's more than just I feel like there's so much that has happened and I just don't want it to be like I'm coming back into music yes I am but I'm coming back with so much more um so the the at the screenings at the premiere there's going to be live performance and we'll just perform every after you've watched watched everything perform at all the screenings there'll be questions you can talk about mental health these kinds of conversations we can actually have them at the event and open to answer all the questions and I've decided to be as vulnerable as I can for this for this for this project so yeah so yeah um if you're watching this please do go on adomar.com and get your tickets there are different packages very interesting packages it's going to be really really really fun I've put a lot of thoughts we started working this in 2020 during the lockdown so lots of thoughts lots of thoughts and efforts I was going into it so definitely it's going to be one that you would really enjoy so please make sure you're around yeah for it wonderful and that's on that cuts we're done thank you so much thank you too