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 it features Attack, Papisco, a Mauritania artist. It is going to be a new taste in music and will be released on my birthday, Diha explained.
She added that after the EP she is going hard in the studio to release her debut album coming next year.
She assured her fans to get ready for new Diha music to another level.
About Diha
The Wonder Voice
The amazing 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 in the process became a famous singer. 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 and at age 5 she moved to the Gambia 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 the realm of 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 affected her educational journey and school became secondary and subsequently affected her performance academically. Her life growing up has been 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 while living with her grandma that was 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 ended up being an assistant at a beauty Salon and she quickly figured out that was not her calling and grabbed the microphone once 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 artists, she did pay her dues by becoming a backing vocalist for Pa Omar Jack, Mass Lowe, and Jalex. 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 nd dance floors and a year later, after riding on the success of “Mbeugeul”, she dropped another single called “Gorgi”.
Once people started hearing the wonderful voice behind these two melodious tracks, Diha started attracting the attention of industry insiders. 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 many a lot of the industry skills to her and polished her musical gift.
Once trained for bigger things, Carlo D set her loose and off to the Gambia. Once 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 and Diha was granted an audience by the President of the Republic, and Bilal the renowned producer of Suns of Light
studios recorded a demo with Diha that was 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 clinched the title with ease.
Her musical inspiration is tapped from different sources but Sambou Suso and Whithney Houston are very influential in her musical journey. As the Wollofs would commonly say “loh nangou wuut tah neka talibeh doh chi done Serign” and Haddy Trawally commonly as Diha has gone full circle in the journey of self-discovery and a musical pilgrimage. She is a diva on her right and champion of Gambia music and brand. She is poised to release her new album entitled Diha with SLB music, a subsidiary of Sundland music.
