By: Bakary Ceesay
Diha, one of the Gambia’s female melody vocalists, is ready to return to the music industry after a short break with a new EP in October.
‘The EP comprises four tracks with four videos and features Attack, Papisco, a Mauritania artist. It will be a new music taste and be released on my birthday, Diha told Alkamba Times Entertainment.
She added that after the EP, she is going hard in the studio to release her debut album next year.
She assured her fans of getting ready for new Diha music to another level.
The incredible power of her voice and the scintillating melody of her vocals made Diha a household name in SeneGambia. Diha brought the new Gambian sound to the forefront of Gam-music and became a famous singer in the process. Yet, despite her fame and success, Diha, The Wonder Voice of Gambian music, always remained true to what she held to be her mission.
Diha, the daughter of an immigrant father from TambaCounda and a Gambian mother of Basse origin, was born across the border in TambaCounda. She moved to the Gambia at age five to resettle with her mom. Music was a natural passion for The Wonder Voice, and her love and admiration for music blossomed from an early age. At the tender age of twelve, she ventured into self-discovery within the music arena. She spent a lot of time watching music videos and admiring the stars and glamour associated with the music
industry.
This, to a point, affected her educational journey, and school became secondary, and it subsequently affected her performance academically. As a result, her life growing up was a bit turbulent, and despite this adversity, she held her own and never strayed off her desired path to success.
Her Mother remarried, and her stepdad saw the immense musical and artistic potential residing in her and pushed her to carry on with her musical dream.
The life of uncertainty carried on as her Mother relocated to Germany and Diha moved on to live with her maternal grandmother. She encountered some undesirable house rules living with her grandmum that were on a collision course with her musical dreams.
Her grandmum didn’t like her musical path, and Diha decided to move back with her dad. Moving back home with a limited educational background, Diha became an assistant at a beauty salon. However, she quickly figured out that was not her call and grabbed the microphone again.
Adolescence and independence started early for Diha because she was forced to grow faster than kids her age. At age seventeen, she moved back to the Gambia and zeroed in the music business with the sole aim of blowing up and becoming larger than life within the Gambian Music scene.
Like a most aspiring artist, she paid her dues by becoming a backing vocalist for Pa Omar Jack, Mass Lowe, and Jalex. However, her yearning and hunger for success made her want more than being a background vocalist, and she ventured into the studio in 2007 to produce her first single, “Mbeugeul.”
This single made its rounds on the radio airwaves and dance floors, and a year later, after riding on the success of “Mbeugeul,” she dropped another single called “Gorgi”. Once people started hearing the incredible voice behind these two musical tracks, Diha began attracting industry insiders’ attention. So she went to Dakar and auditioned for the multitalented artistic guru Carlo D who incorporated her in his band as a backing vocalist. Carlo passed on a lot of industry skills to her and polished her musical gift.
Once trained for bigger things, Carlo D set her loose and off to the Gambia. Earlier in the Gambia, she was poised to do bigger and better things, and there she released her hit song “Taling Taling”.
This song was the beginning of bigger things to come. The President of the Republic granted Diha an audience, and Bilal, the renowned producer of Suns of Light studios, recorded a demo with Diha to be part of a compilation by star producer Bouba Ndour.
She was nominated for Best Gambian Female Artist amongst a fierce lineup of Gambian Songstresses, and she easily clinched the title.
Haddy Trawally, commonly known as Diha, has gone full circle in the journey of self-discovery and a musical pilgrimage. She is a diva in her own right and a champion of Gambia music and brand. She is poised to release her new album Diha with SLB music, a subsidiary of Sundaland music.
