''Vera Hamenoo-Kpeda ''(born 23 June 1992), better known by her stage name MzVee, is a

Ghanaian Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and Tog ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

afropop African popular music (also styled Afropop, Afro-pop or Afro pop), like Music of Africa, African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. M ...

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Ro ...

and R&B artiste. Her debut solo album features several hit singles including '''Borkor Borkor''' (meaning - Slowly), 'Natural Girl' and 'Dancehall Queen'. MzVee was signed to the record label

Lynx Entertainment Lynx Entertainment is a Ghanaian record label founded in 2006 by the producer and singer-songwriter Richie Mensah. The label successfully launched the solo careers of the Ghanaian musicians Richie, ASEM, Irene Logan, OJ Blaq, Eazzy, Zigi, Jayla, ...

and was the winner of the New Artiste of the Year award at the 2015

Ghana Music Awards The Ghana Music Awards, currently known as the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs) for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music awards event in Ghana established in 1999 by a local event organizer and planner company known as CharterHouse to origi ...

. She parted ways with

in the year 2019. She is currently a solo artist.

Early life

MzVee was born in South La Estates, 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 Girls' Senior High School and is now studying Business Administration at Ghana Telecom University.

Music career

2012 – 2013: Early beginnings

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 had popular hits like "Good Girls Gone Bad" and "Gyani Gyani" before disbanding at the end of 2013 due to the young members' educational commitments. .

2014 – 2016: Breakthrough

MzVee launched her solo career with debut single ‘Borkor Borkor’ released in January 2014. She followed this with hit single ‘Natural Girl’ and went on to win the 'Unsung Artiste Award' at the 2014 Ghana Music Awards. Her debut album was released in November 2014 and features collaborations with several award-winning artistes such as

Stonebwoy Livingstone Etse Satekla (born 5 March 1988), better known by his stage name Stonebwoy, is a Ghanaian Afropop, dancehall and reggae musician. He is the CEO of Burniton Music Group. He won the Best International Act: Africa category at the 2015 B ...

VIP A very important person or personage (VIP or V.I.P.) is a person who is accorded special privileges due to their high social status, influence or importance. The term was not common until sometime after World War 2 by RAF pilots. Examples in ...

Shatta Wale Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr., (born 17 October 1984) is a Ghanaian reggae-dancehall artist. He is known by his stage name Shatta Wale, formerly Bandana. His best-known singles are "Dancehall King", "My level" and "We taking over" .He is also know ...

Richie Mensah Richie Mensah (born 17 May 1986), better known by his stage name Richie, is a Ghanaian singer-songwriter and record producer. After producing records for several artists, Richie set up Lynx Entertainment record label and released his debut albu ...

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and Didier Awadi. 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

including 'Album of the Year' and 'Record of the Year' for the single 'Abofra' which features

Efya Jane Awindor (born April 10, 1987), better known by her stage name Efya, is a Ghanaian singer, songwriter, and actress from Kumasi. She is the daughter of Nana Adwoa Awindor, a filmmaker and celebrity host of the late television show ''Greetin ...

. Her highly anticipated third album ''DaaVee'' was released in May 2017.

2017– 2019: Hiatus

MzVee took a two-year break from the Music Industry from 2017 to 2019. In an interview with TV3 on Monday, January 5, 2020, she revealed that her reason for leaving the music industry was a massive depression which she was going through. This has dismissed pregnancy rumors that some people were saying is the reason for her absence from the Music Industry. Throughout the two-year period MzVee found help from her friend

who kept supporting and encouraging her until she overcame depression. She has announced that as of 2020 she is back to music and will be releasing a single she has titled "Sheriff".

2020 – 2021: inVeencible

One other thing MzVee said when she returned from her depression-induced hiatus from music was that she will be releasin
two albums
However, she obviously could not release the two albums as she promised due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. She rather managed to release one album dubbed inVeencible. The album which featured Sarkodie,

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Medikal Samuel Adu Frimpong (born 4 April 1994), popularly known as Medikal, is a Ghanaian hip hop musician born to Portia Lamptey and James Frimpong in Sowutuom, a suburb of Accra. Early life and music career He comes from Sowutuom, a suburb in Acc ...

Kelvyn Boy Kelvyn Brown (born 1 April 1991), better known by his stage name Kelvyn Boy is a Ghanaian Afrobeat singer from Assin Fosu, Central region of Ghana. He got signed to Burniton Music Group owned by Stonebwoy and due to some controversies, left th ...

Kojo Funds Errol Kojo Bellot, better known professionally as Kojo Funds ( ; born 30 March 1995), is a British singer-songwriter and rapper. His music blends West African and Caribbean sounds with road rap, dancehall and pop. Kojo Funds featured on Yxng Ba ...

, as well as

Falz Folarin Falana (born 27 October 1990), better known by his stage name Falz, is a Nigerian rapper, songwriter and actor who began his career while in secondary school after forming a group called The School Boys with his friend before his profe ...

and Navy Kenzoo, was released on December 11, 2020. In March 2021, she partnered with Trace TV to release her music video for her song 'You Alone'.

2022: 10 Thirty

On 24 June 2022, MzVee released her fifth album, titled 10 Thirty inspired by her 10th year as a musician and to celebrate turning 30 years. 10 Thirty, a ten–tracked album featured Nigerian musicians,

Bella Shmurda Abiola Ahmed Akinbiyi (born 27 January 1996), professionally known as Bella Shmurda, is a Nigerian singer. He rose to prominence with the release of the song "Vision 2020", and a follow-up remix which featured Nigeria rapper Olamide. Early li ...

Yemi Alade Yemi Eberechi Alade (born 13 March 1989), is a Nigerian Afropop singer, songwriter, actress and activist. She won the ''Peak Talent Show'' in 2009 after which she signed to Effyzzie Music Group, and had a hit with her single "Johnny" in 2014. Si ...

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and Ghanaian musicians

and

Kofi Kinaata Martin King Arthur (born 15 April 1990) popularly known as Kofi Kinaata is a Ghanaian musician and songwriter from Takoradi. He is noted for his Fante people, Fante rap and freestyle and therefore known as the Fante Rap God (FRG). Apart from his ...

Musical style and recognition

MzVee's music contains elements of afropop, R&B and dancehall and her strong vocal abilities earned her a nomination for 'Female Vocalist of the Year' at the 2015 Ghana Music Awards and the award for 'Most Promising Act' at the 2015 Ghana Music Honors. She is regarded as one of the stars of Ghana's dancehall scene and received the award for 'Best Female Vocalist of the Year' at the 2015 Ghanaian dancehall awards, BASS awards. Her trademark natural African hair and hit single ‘Natural Girl’ has made her an inspiration to young girls across Africa who want to celebrate their natural look. MzVee's impressive rise to the top continued with a nomination in June 2015 in the 'Best International New Artist' category at the

BET Awards 2015 The 15th BET Awards was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California on June 28, 2015 and was televised on BET. This year marked the ceremony's 15th anniversary and the milestone was celebrated throughout the show, which was hosted by ...

. This brand new fan-voted category celebrates rising stars from across the channel's international footprint. In October 2015, MzVee was appointed the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

Ambassador for their 'End Extreme Poverty Campaign'. She released the official campaign song titled 'End Poverty' and became a World Bank #Music4Dev Guest Artist; a role which has been held in the past by a number of award-winning artists including

D'Banj Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo (born 9 June 1980), better known by his stage name D'banj, is a Nigerian singer and rapper and the founder of Mo' Hits Records with producer Don Jazzy. He has won several music awards, including the awards for ''Best Af ...

and

Fally Ipupa Fally Ipupa N'simba (born December 14, 1977), known by his stage name Fally Ipupa, is a Congolese singer-songwriter, dancer, philanthropist, guitarist and producer. From 1999 until 2006, he was a member of Quartier Latin International, the music ...

. MzVee was named in

MTV Base MTV Base was a British pay television music channel from Paramount Networks UK & Australia that focused primarily on hip hop, R&B, grime, garage, reggae, funk, soul and dance music. It was launched as part of MTV's digital boutique of music ch ...

's list of the top African artists to watch out for in 2016. This list featured the breakthrough hit makers of 2015 on the African continent. 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

and

, Album of the Year and Best Female Vocalist. On May 20, 2016, MzVee was nominated for the BET Awards 2016 - Best International Act: Africa category and became the first Ghanaian female musician to be nominated for a major BET Award. She was also nominated in the Best Female category in October 2016 for the MTV Africa Music Awards. MzVee in concert

MzVee continues to receive both critical and commercial acclaim for her work and was awarded the Best Female Artist Honour at the Ghana Music Honours on 4 March 2017. She was also nominated for Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year, Best Female Vocalist and Overall Artiste of the Year at the 2017 Ghana Music Awards.

Discography

*''Re-Vee-Lation'' (2014) *''Verified'' (2015) *''DaaVee'' (2017) *''InVeecible'' (2020) *10 Thirty ''(2022)''

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Lynx Entertainment

inVeencible Album
{{Authority control Ghanaian musicians 1992 births Living people St Mary's Senior High School (Ghana) alumni