A few weeks ago , I interviewed Jeremie at Live FM premises . It focused on joining Live FM after being part of the Y FM family for five years , her relationship with Jay Foley and other issues .
It’s been some two months since you joined Live FM. How has the experience been like?
A. Awesome
Q. How awesome?
A. Awesome meaning I wanted a challenge; i wanted to try something new and that’s exactly what this is. Even though it’s still family and it’s not exactly totally and completely new because this is Vibe and i used to be at Vibe so it’s like coming back home. On the other hand the experience is totally different because on Y Fm I was doing three hours in the evening. Here, I am doing the drive which is more challenging.
I am the only female in Ghana doing the drive at the moment and that’s like a huge task. And so I have learnt a lot; am growing more and am reaching a much larger audience and it’s awesome. That’s exactly what I was looking for.
Q. What influenced the decision to move to Live FM?
A. Growth and God. Growth as in I reached the point in my life where I just wanted to explore. I believe in spreading your wings and challenging yourself.I am that kind of a person. Y is still my family; I still go there; I still talk to everybody; I love Y, that’s my family but It was a life decision about me growing into a woman and trying new things.
And secondly God because I prayed about it. I put God first in everything that I do. I don’t take a step or decision or anything without God. So I really prayed about it because it’s a difficult decision. It’s not like changing clothes; it’s a life decision. It’s a career change decision; so I really prayed about it. I felt good in my spirit about it.
Q. Do you have any other responsibilities at Live other than being host of the drive?
A. No. I don’t even have the time. I am on air from 3 to 7 and I work two other jobs. I do advertising with The Radio Advertising People, am the marketing managress for that and I also record commercials for TV and radio. I do 4Syte TV. I don’t have time and the biggest chunk of my day which is 3 to 7 has been taken so we are looking at me getting home at like 10pm.
Q. Live FM and Y FM share just about the same audience. Do you foresee Live FM overtaking Y FM?
A. Nobody is overtaking anybody and this is not a competition; it’s about reaching out to people. Of course everybody starts from some place. I did Y for 5 years and I’ve started Live; I don’t know how long i’m going to be here for, but what I do know is that at the end of the day I want to be that person who helps people grow.
Right now I seem like the entertainment chick; there’s so much more to me. I think God placed me here so i can get the audience that am getting … So that when I start to try to inspire them, and start to try to motivate them, they will understand because they’ve grown with me.
Q. You mentioned earlier that you work with The Radio Advertising People (TRAP). What are your thoughts on the quality of adverts airing on local radio and television?
A. I think we have quite a long way to go. We’ve come a long way because back then commercials were all about crusade, crusade, crusade, have you heard about the new this or that … but now we are improving. We are evolving; we are learning; there are new ideas; there are new methods of advertising that are coming every day. People are being more creative; there are young and fresh minds in the market now.
And there’s competition as well so if you are doing a commercial for a brand and you are boring nobody’s going to buy it; you have to do something exciting, that’s going to get people talking. And that’s what we need in the advertising industry.
Q. What kind of impact would you say 4SyteTV has had on the entertainment industry?
A. Huge impact. Entertainment existed before 4Syte started but 4Syte sort of captured the youth in such a way that other entertainment shows hadn’t been able to. You knew that every event that happened even if you weren’t there you would see it on 4Syte TV. And you also knew that when it comes to pool parties and stuff like that. 4Syte is always finding ways to entertain the youth. But the biggest way we’ve impacted is with the music video awards.
I mean nobody had ever done that before; we had the Ghana Music awards. We had other awards that awarded people but nobody had thought of focusing solely on music videos.
Q. You do radio, TV, advertising and MCing. That must be some tight working schedule?
A. That’s the thing; I put God first in everything I do. The number of things that I do in a day, it’s not humanly possible to keep your mind sane because am rushing through meetings, am recording, am doing some ad here, I have to get on air by 3pm; that means I have to be here (Live FM) by 2pm. And then I have to shoot 4Syte during the week. It’s a lot.
This is my life on the regular every single day and it’s not easy if you don’t have a focused mind. It’s easy for you to fall off and be that crazy chick, who is all over the place and clubbing and partying. I’m not that girl. You won’t see me in a club or you won’t see me partying unless I was there for work.
I put God first in everything that I do so when you put him first he organizes your day; he organizes your everything. And people ask me that all the time how you do all the things that you do and you still here or still fit or whatever. It definitely is God.
Q. You keep making reference to God; you must be highly spiritual?
A. I have a personal relationship with God. I’m a praying woman (you should write that in capital letters * laughs *). Jeremie is a praying woman; that’s a part of me that people don’t know and that’s why I keep saying that I haven’t even done a quarter of what I really want to do.
And what I really would like to do say in the next ten years or so, i mean, i want to … In my own little way I want to tell people about God, I want to help people in the streets, I want to help orphans, and I want to build an orphanage. There are so many things I want to do just to inspire young people.
Anytime a person comes up to me and says Jeremie I like what you do or I like your voice, I watch you all the time, and I’m your number one fan or whatever; i say yes it’s nice but I don’t want you to be like me.
I want you to do it for you. I want you to be inspired to be bigger and better than Jeremie. The sky’s the limit.
I don’t play with my Jesus, I say that all the time and yes I put him first in everything that I do. I’m prayerful. I pray, I fast, I worship, I do all that.
Q. I have seen some not-so-nice tweets directed at you. Do they in any way discourage you from using social media?
A. No it doesn’t. I have learnt the hard way that once you are in the media, you would be talked about. Everybody can’t like you, you have the positives and negatives but you focus on what you doing and you move on. I mean I have had people say some hateful things… and on the other hand, you have people who also praise you all the time and say you are good at what you do; you inspire them.
So I can’t just shut down when it is a way for me to reach out to my fans. Like people who actually support you and give you motivations as well.
As much as am motivated by God, I also get that from my fans. If someone is telling you wow I think you are so good at what you do and I want to be like you, it pushes me to strive to be better so I can actually inspire more people to push harder; to go for what they want in life.
Q. Do you get worried when people say you fake your accent?
A. Absolutely not. It does not faze me in anyway. You can’t touch me (laughs); am blessed 100%. I’ve come a long way; I have learnt a lot. I’ve schooled in different parts of the world and so you don’t expect a person who just didn’t live in Ghana to not pick up an accent.
It’s not that I don’t care; I do care about my fans and anybody who speaks at me but I can’t let that bring me down.
I can’t let that stop me from pushing myself because there are people out there actually say I like the way you speak or I want to learn to speak like you . I embrace it, I feel 100% blessed; you either take it or leave it (laughs).
Q. Some musicians say radio presenters don’t give them enough support because of the rate at which you play foreign music compared to Ghanaian music. What would be your response to that?
A. I would say is a station’s policy but I believe in Ghanaian music. I am close to most of the artistes and because of my relationship with them … it’s not just even because of the relationship with the artistes but also because Ghana needs to get out there. I just got signed to Malta Guiness for a reason; Africa Rising and that’s what we talking about; you want to get Ghana to not just be in the Ghana box but to be able to get outside the box and be heard by the rest of the world.
And so I really believe in pushing Ghanaian music. I’m proud of Sarkodie for winning the BET award; am proud of R2Bees for being nominated and there are so many other people that are nominated; Jon Germain has been nominated several times for African awards. We’re going somewhere; we pushing ourselves outside – so am all for Ghanaian music.
Q. What would be your advice to musicians on the promotion of their works outside radio and television?
A. I would say social media is really important because aside radio it would shock you someone from some part of the world would hear you because you are … Jay Ghartey is a typical example. When I meet him he showed me his Facebook page and he had fans from Ukraine; weird countries from around the world that you would never expect, Asia, Japan, France etc. It wasn’t just Ghana; all around the world Turkey, and other countries and they loved his music because they are following him on Facebook and he is putting his music out there.
So if you focus just on Ghana radio, the world can’t hear you. You get what I mean? So, social media is not just there for you to say hi I just woke up in the morning; no it’s there for you to make the world hear your music and also hear what you have to say.
Q. Is there any truth to the rumors that you are dating or dated Jay Foley?
A. No. Jay Foley is my partner, my best friend, we are not dating; am single and he is. We are extremely closed, we have businesses together, we worked at Y FM together, we do 4Syte together, we have the advertising company together so it’s only natural that you always see us together because we are doing all those things together and he honestly is my best friend. He knows me better than anybody else.
Q. Are you searching?
A. No. Am not focused on that now; am focused on my career, God and family. I think when the time is right …
Q. The worst rumour you heard about yourself?
A. Everybody will have their opinion of you regardless. I don’t have to change anybody’s opinion. You have to get to know me to … I mean I’ve had some people come up to me and say oh my God like anytime we see you we think you are not approachable. But am the most down to earth person that you can ever come across. At the end of the day it’s how close you get to me. Once you get to know me, what you see is what you get; I don’t hide anything, this is me. What you hear on radio is what you see in person so yeah … so am real as real gets.
Q. Back to what influenced you moving to Live FM. Was money ever a consideration?
A. No money didn’t influence me in any way because when I said I was going to move, naturally YFM didn’t want me to go so they will definitely up their … so yeah it wasn’t about money because at the end of the day Y was going to pay me a lot more. It’s about … its growth.
Q. Last words?
A. Put God first in everything you do. There is something that we say for 2131; you Lead, you challenge or you just forget it.
I started at Vibe and moved to Y; I challenged myself and I moved from Y to here. I did five years, I built a brand and moved and started afresh. It’s not easy; it’s like risk taking, you either lead, challenge or just forget it.
And if you forget it, it means you are losing hope and you are letting go. And that’s not me; I am a fighter, I push hard.
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